BARNARD 


NORMAL    SCHOOLS 

VOLUME  1 


UNIVERSITY  of 
AT 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


NORMAL  SCHOOLS, 


AND   OTHER 


INSTITUTIONS,  AGENCIES,  AND  MEANS 


DESIGNED  FOR   THE 


PROFESSIONAL  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS. 


BY  HENRY  BARNARD, 

SUPERINTENDENT    OF    COMMON    SCHOOLS    OF    CONNECTICUT. 


PART   I.— UNITED   STATES   AND    BRITISH    PROVINCES. 


HARTFORD: 

PUBLISHED  BY  CASE,  TIFFANY  AND  COMPANY. 
1851. 


130033 


Reprinted,  1929,  by 

COLORADO  STATE  TEACHEBS  COLLEGE 

QREKLEY,   COLORADO 
As  Education  Series  No.  6 


•    • 


Educftto 


v,  \ 


O 

CIRCULAR 


The  following  pages  constitute  the  second  of  the  series  of 
Essays  which  the  undersigned  was  authorized  by  the  Legis- 
lature in  1850  to  prepare  for  general  circulation  in  Connect- 
icut, on  topics  connected  with  the  condition  and  improve- 
ment of  our  Common  Schools.  The  necessity  and  importance 
of  specific  preparation  for  the  business  of  teaching  are  rec- 
ognized by  the  State  in  its  recent  legislation  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  institution  to  be  devoted  exclusively  to  this 
object.  The  gradual  development  of  this  idea  from  its  first 
^  formal  presentation  by  Rev.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet,  in  1825, 
to  its  partial  realization  in  the  State  Normal  School  at  New 
^•^  Britain,  in  1850,  is  traced  in  the  documents  which  are  here 
embodied. 

While  Connecticut  was  discussing  the  subject,  or  slum- 
bering over  it,  "with  the  half  patriarchial,  half  poetical 
dream,"  which  is  apt  to  come  over  us  when  we  think  of  our 
"venerable  common  school  system,"  Massachusetts  was  act- 
V        ing  not  only  in  this  but  in  other  departments  of  educational 
improvement,  with  a  vigor  and  liberality  which  has  placed 
her  public  schools  over  at  least  one  half  of  her  territory,  at 
least  a  half  century  in  advance  of  our  own  in  towns  of  the 
same  wealth  and  population.  New- York,  too,  whose  school 
.       system  as  originally  drafted  by  a  native  of  Connecticut,  was 
^      copied  in  its  essential  features  from  our  own,  under  the  lead 
0*      of  De  Witt  Clinton  in  1826,  commenced  a  series  of  improve- 
^     ments  which  resulted  in  Teachers  Departments,  District 
Libraries,  Union  Schools,  County  Inspection  Teachers'  Insti- 
tutes, and  a  Normal  School,  which  have  done  more,  and  are 
doing  more  now  to  develop  the  resources  of  the  State  than 
her  gigantic  system  of  railroads  and  canals. 

The  city  of  Philadelphia,  whose  system  of  public  schools, 
made  free  by  taxation  on  property,  went  into  operation  only 
two  years  before  Connecticut  passed  a  law  exempting  the 
people  from  the  obligation  of  raising  a  tax  on  property  for 
a  portion  of  the  expense  of  supporting  common  schools — 
(the  most  disastrous  law  ever  placed  on  her  statute  book)  — 
has  now  a  system  of  public  instruction  from  the  Primary 
School  for  children  four  years  of  age,  to  the  Normal  School 


4  CIRCULAR 

in  which  the  female  teachers  of  all  her  schools  can  be 
trained,  maintained  with  a  liberality,  and  embracing  oppor- 
tunities of  an  extended  English,  classical,  and  business  edu- 
cation, which  is  free  to  all  and  practically  enjoyed  by  the 
children  of  the  rich  and  poor— of  which  we  have  no  ap- 
proach in  any  city  of  our  State. 

The  State  of  Michigan,  which  has  been  admitted  to  the 
Union  since  the  idea  of  a  Normal  School  was  first  present- 
ed in  Connecticut,  has  set  apart,  not  the  bonus  of  a  bank  as 
a  temporary  experiment,  but  a  permanent  fund  for  the  en- 
dowment of  an  institution  devoted  exclusively  to  the  pro- 
fessional education  of  teachers. 

The  province  of  Upper  Canada,  stimulated  by  the  ex- 
ample of  the  neighboring  State  of  New- York,  has  within 
ten  years  organized  a  system  of  common  schools  more  com- 
plete in  its  plan,  more  efficient  in  its  administration,  and 
embracing  more  of  the  agencies  of  educational  progress, 
than  the  system  of  any  one  of  the  United  States.  At  the  head 
of  these  agencies  of  progress  stands  the  Provincial  Normal 
School,  for  which,  besides  a  standing  appropriation  of  $10,- 
000  a  year  for  the  current  expenses,  the  sum  of  $55,000  has 
just  been  almost  unanimously  voted  by  the  Legislature,  to 
provide  a  suitable  building  and  apparatus  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  school. 

Some  notice  of  these  institutions  will  be  given  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages,  together  with  the  republication  of  a  number 
of  documents  and  addresses  setting  forth  the  origin,  nature, 
and  advantages  of  Normal  Schools,  and  her  institutions, 
agencies,  and  means,  for  the  professional  education  and  im- 
provement of  teachers,  in  the  United  States. 

This  Essay  will  be  followed  by  a  volume  on  the  same 
great  topic,  in  which  an  account  will  be  given  of  the  organi- 
zation and  course  of  instruction  of  several  of  the  best  Nor- 
mal Seminaries  in  Europe,  together  with  an  outline  of  the 
system  of  Public  Schools  in  the  countries  where  these  Sem- 
inaries have  been  longest  in  operation.  Although  not  pre- 
pared exclusively  or  originally  for  this  series  of  publica- 
tions, copies  will  be  furnished  to  all  orders  from  any  part  of 
the  State,  on  the  same  terms  with  the  Principles  of  School 
Architecture,  viz :  at  half  the  cost  of  publication. 

HENRY  BARNARD, 

SUPERINTENDENT  OF  COMMON  SCHOOLS. 
HABTFORD,  January  6th,  1851. 


NORMAL  SCHOOLS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

INTRODUCTION 7 

Table.  Number,  location  and  date  of 
erection  of  Normal  Schools,  .  9 

CONNECTICUT. 

Legislative  History  of  Normal 
Schools 11 

Law  Establishing  State  Normal 
School, 27 

First  Annual  Report  of  Board  of 
Trustees 31 

Report  of  Superintendent  for  1850,          35 

Topics  for  Lectures,  Discussion,  and 
Composition  on  the  Theory  and 
Practice  of  Education,  .  .  43 

Remarks  on  Teachers'  Seminaries, 
by  Rev.  T.  H.  Gallaudet,  in  1825,  47 

Circular — Terms  of  Admission,  Course 
of  Instruction,  &c.  ...  57 

Hints  respecting  Applicants  for  Ad- 
mission, .....  61 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

History    of    Normal    Schools,         .  73 

Resolves  establishing  Normal  Schools,  74 
Regulations      respecting      Admission, 

Studies,     &c 67 

Normal  School  at  West  Newton,  .  71 

'     Letter   from   Cyrus    Peirce,         .  73 

Normal  School  at  Bridgewater,     .  79 

Letter  from  Nathan  Tillinghast,  79 
Condition    of    State    Normal    Schools 

in    1850 81 

Report  of  Board  of  Education,  81 

Visitors  of  West  Newt- 
on   School 84 

Report    of    Visitors    of    Westfield 

School, 86 

Report  of  Visitors  of  Bridgewater 

School, 80 

Report  of  Secretary  of  the  Board,  89 

Addresses  and  other  Documents  con- 
nected with  the  History  of  Normal 
Schools  in  Massachusetts. 

Outline  of  an  Institution  for  Teach- 
ers, by  James  G.  Carter,  1825,  91 

Memorial    of    American    Institute    of 

Instruction,            ....  103 

Teachers'    Seminary    at    Andover,  113 

Remarks  of  Dr.  Channing  on  Educa- 
tion, Teachers,  and  Normal  Schools,  115 

Normal   Schools   and   Teachers'    Semi- 
naries, by  Calvin  E.  Stowe,         .  123 
Necessity  of  in  each  State,         .  124 
Preparation  for  Admission,         .  127 
Model    School   and    School   of   Prac- 
tice,               128 

Course  of  Instruction,         .         .  128 

Advantages,           ....  138 


PACK. 

Objections 140 

Notes.    Chinese    Education,         .  143 

Prussian  Schools  prior  to  1819,  144 

School     Counsellor     Dinter,         .  146 

Teachers'  Conferences  in  Prussia,  146 

Educational  Convention  in   Plymouth 

County, 151 

Rev.    Charles    Brooks,         .         .  151 

Ichabod      Morton,         .         .         .  153 

Robert       Rantoul,         .         .         .  153 

Rev.  Dr.  Putnam,         .         .         .  153 

John    Quincy    Adams,         .         .  154 

Daniel       Webster,         ...  154 

Rev.  Dr.  Robbins,         .         .         .  157 

Special  Preparation,  a  Pre-requisite 
to  Teaching,  a  Lecture  by  Horace 

Mann,     in      1838,         ...  159 

Address  at  the  opening  of  the  Nor- 
mal School  at  Barre,  by  Edward 

Everett 179 

Remarks  by  Horace  Mann  and  others 
on  the  opening  of  the  new  Nor- 
mal School  house  in  Bridgewater,  195 

Dedicatory    Address    at    Bridgewater, 

by  William  G.  Bates,  1846,         .  201 

Dedicatory    Address   at   Westfield,    by 

Rev.   Heman  Humphrey,     .         .  215 
/Teachers'  Associations  and  Agencies,  227 
Teachers'    Institutes,  .         .         .  227 
County   Teachers'    Association,  228 
Massachusetts     Teachers'     Associa- 
tion,               228 

American   Institute   of   Instruction,  229 

List  of   Lectures   delivered   before,  230 

Agents  of   Board  of   Education,     .  232 

Educational     Periodicals,         .         .  232 

NEW  YORK. 

History  of  Normal  Schools,  .         .  235 
Plan    of    Teachers'    Departments    in 

Academies 237 

Report   of   Prof.    Potter,         .         .  238 

State  Normal  School  at  Albany,  241 

Address  of  Samuel  S.  Randall,     .  242 

PENNSYLVANIA. 
Normal    School    in    City    of    Philadel- 
phia  251 

RHODE    ISLAND. 

Modes  of  Professional  Improvement 
adopted  from  1843  to  1848,  .  261 

Professorship  of  Didactics  in  Brown 
University,  .....  265 

MICHIGAN. 
State   Normal    School   at   Ypsilanti,      266 

BRITISH     PROVINCES. 
Upper  Canada,         ....         267 
Nova    Scotia, 267 


INTRODUCTION 


In  the  winter  of  1825,  there  appeared,  almost  simultan- 
eously,* but  without  any  knowledge  of  each  other's  views, 
and  even  without  any  personal  knowledge  of  each  other,  in 
the  Connecticut  Observer,  printed  in  Hartford,  over  the 
signature  of  a  "Father,"  and  in  the  Patriot,  printed  in  Bos- 
ton, over  the  signature  of  "Franklin,"  a  series  of  articles  in 
which  the  claims  of  Education  as  a  science,  and  Teaching 
as  an  art,  were  ably  discussed,  and  an  Institution  was  pro- 
posed in  each  series,  having  the  same  general  features,  for 
the  special  training  of  teachers  for  their  profession.  These 
articles  were  collected  and  published  by  their  respective 
authors,  in  pamphlet  form,  the  first  with  the  title  of  "Plan 
of  a  Seminary  for  the  Education  of  Instructors  of  Youth, 
by  Rev.  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet.  Boston,  1825," — and  the  last 
with  the  title  "Essays  on  Popular  Education,  containing  a 
particular  examination  of  the  Schools  of  Massachusetts,  and 
an  Outline  of  an  Institution  for  the  Education  of  Teachers, 
by  James  G.  Carter.  Boston,  1826." 

In  the  same  year,  1825,  Walter  R.  Johnson,  then  residing 
in  Germantown,  Penn.,  without  any  knowledge  of  the  views 
of  Mr.  Carter  or  Mr.  Gallaudet,  in  a  pamphlet,  entitled 
"Observations  on  the  Improvement  of  Seminaries  of  Learn- 
ing," set  forth  the  necessity  and  advantages  of  schools  for 
the  special  training  of  teachers. 

In  the  same  year,  in  which  appeared  the  earliest  publica- 
tion on  the  subject  in  Connecticut,  Governor  Clinton  com- 
mended to  the  consideration  of  the  Legislature  of  New  York, 
"the  education  of  competent  teachers;"  and  in  1826,  "the 
establishment  of  a  seminary"  for  this  purpose.  From  this 
time,  the  importance  of  the  professional  education  of  teach- 
ers, and  of  institutions  specially  devoted  to  this  object,  be- 
gan to  attract  the  attention  of  statesmen  and  educators, 
until,  at  the  close  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  the  idea  is  prac- 

*The  article  by  Mr.  Gallaudet,  containing  the  statement  of  his  plan  of  a  Seminary, 
was  published  on  the  4th  of  January,  1825,  and  those  of  Mr.  Carter,  devoted  to  his 
Outline  of  an  Institution,  appeared  the  10th  and  15th  of  February,  1825. 


8  INTRODUCTION 

tically  realized  in  each  of  the  four  states  in  which  the  enter- 
prise was  first  proposed.  The  history  of  the  efforts  made 
by  the  friends  of  educational  improvement  to  establish  Nor- 
mal Schools  in  these  states  is  full  of  instruction  and  encour- 
agement to  those  who  are  laboring  in  the  same  field,  and 
for  the  same  object,  in  other  states. 

The  Normal  Schools  already  established  in  this  country 
are,  it  is  believed,  doing  much  good,  and  realizing  the  prom- 
ises of  those  who  have  been  active  in  getting  them  up ;  but 
as  compared  with  European  Institutions  of  the  same  kind, 
and  the  demands  for  professional  training  in  all  our  schools, 
they  labor  under  many  disadvantages. 

1.  Pupils  are  admitted  without  adequate  preparatory  at- 
tainments, and  without  sufficient  test  of  their  "aptness  to 
teach." 

2.  A  majority  of  the  pupils  do  not  remain  a  sufficient 
length  of  time,  to  acquire  that  knowledge  of  subjects  and 
methods,  and  especially  that  intellectual  power  and  enlight- 
enment, which  are  essential  to  the  highest  success  in  the 
profession. 

3.  There  are  no  endowments  to  reduce  the  expense  of  a 
prolonged  residence  to  a  class  of  poor  but  promising  pupils. 

4.  They  are  not  provided  with  a  sufficient  number  of 
teachers  for  the  number  of  pupils  admitted. 

5.  From  the  want  of  a  well-defined  and  limited  purpose 
in  each  institution,  they  are  aiming  to  accomplish  too  much 
— more  for  every  class  of  pupils, — those  with,  and  those 
without  previous  experience, — the  young,  and  the  more  ad- 
vanced,— those    intended    for    country    and    unclassified 
schools,  and  those  intended  for  the  highest  grade  of  city  and 
town  schools, — than  can  be  well  done  for  either  class  of 
pupils. 

Further  experience  will  make  these  deficiences  more  ap- 
parent, not  to  those  who  have  the  immediate  charge  of  these 
institutions,  for  they  are  already  painfully  conscious  of 
them,  but  to  the  people,  legislatures,  and  liberally-disposed 
men,  who  must  apply  the  remedies  by  increased  appropria- 
tions to  existing,  and  the  establishment  of  additional 
schools. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  Normal  Schools  already  es- 
tablished, with  the  location  and  date  of  the  establishment 
of  each  school. 


INTRODUCTION. 


TABLE 


OF   NORMAL  SCHOOLS  IN   AMERICA. 


State  and  Location. 


Number. 


Date  when 

first 
Established. 


MASSACHUSETTS, 3 

West  Newton, 

Bridgewater, 

Westfield, 

NEW  YORK, 1 

Albany, 

PENNSYLVANIA, 1 

Philadelp  h  ia, 

CONNECTICUT, 1 

New  Britain, 

MICHIGAN, 1 

Ypsilanti, 

BRITISH  PROVINCES, 2 

Toronto,  for  Upper  Canada, 

St.  John's,  for  New  Brunswick, 


1839 
1839 
1839 

1845 
1848 
1849 
1850 

1846 
1848 


CONNECTICUT. 


The  earliest  mention  of  the  establishment  of  a  Seminary 
for  Teachers  in  Connecticut,  was  made  by  Mr.  William 
Russell,*  in  August  1823,  in  a  pamphlet,  entitled  Sugges- 
tions on  Education : 

"The  common  schools  for  children,  are,  in  not  a  few  instances,  con- 
ducted by  individuals  who  do  not  possess  one  of  the  qualifications  of 
an  instructor;  and,  in  very  many  cases,  there  is  barely  knowledge 
enough  'to  keep  the  teacher  at  a  decent  distance  from  his  scholars.'  An 
excellent  suggestion  was  lately  made  on  a  branch  of  this  subject,  by  a 
writer  in  a  periodical  publication.  His  proposal  was,  that  a  seminary 
should  be  founded,  for  the  teachers  of  district  schools;  that  a  course 
of  study  should  be  prescribed  to  persons  who  are  desirous  of  obtaining 
the  situation  of  teachers  in  such  schools;  and  that  no  individual  should 
be  accepted  as  an  instructor,  who  had  not  received  a  license,  or  degree, 
from  the  proposed  institution.  The  effects  of  such  an  improvement  in 
education  seem  almost  incalculable.  The  information,  the  intelligence, 
and  the  refinement,  which  might  thus  be  diffused  among  the  body  of 
the  people,  would  increase  the  prosperity,  elevate  the  character,  and 
promote  the  happiness  of  the  nation  to  a  degree  perhaps  unequalled  in 
the  world," 

In  the  first  number  of  the  Connecticut  Observer,  pub- 
lished in  Hartford,  Conn.,  January  4,  1825,  Rev.  Thomas  H. 
Gallaudett,  then  Principal  of  the  American  Asylum  for  the 
Education  of  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  commenced  a  series  of 
Essays,  with  the  signature  of  "A  Father,"  on  a  Plan  of  a 
Seminary  for  the  Education  of  Instructors  of  Youth.  These 
essays  attracted  much  attention  in  Connecticut,  and  other 
parts  of  New  England,  and  were  collected  and  published  in 
a  pamphlet  of  40  pages,  in  Boston,  in  the  same  year.  Selec- 
tions from  the  same  were  re-published  in  the  newspapers, 
and  the  plan  was  presented  and  discussed  in  the  educational 
conventions  which  assembled  in  Hartford,  in  1828  and  in 
1830.  The  following  is  the  substance  of  the  plan : 

"Suppose,  Mr.  Editor,  an  Institution,  call  it  by  what  name  you  please, 
should  be  established  somewhere  in  New  England,  for  the  training  up 
of  young  men  for  the  profession  of  instructors  of  youth  in  the  common 
branches  of  English  education.  Suppose  such  an  institution  should  be 
so  well  endowed,  by  the  liberality  of  the  public,  or  of  individuals,  as  to 

*Mr.  Russell  was  at  that  date  a  teacher  in  the  New  Township  Academy,  New  Hav- 
en. He  afterward  removed  to  Boston,  where  he  engaged  earnestly  in  the  work  of  edu- 
cational improvement.  In  1826  he  became  editor  of  the  Journal  of  Education,  the  first 
periodical  devoted  exclusively  to  the  subject,  published  in  the  English  language.  Mr. 
Russell  is  now  Principal  of  the  Normal  Institute  at  Merrimack,  New  Hampshire. 


12  NORMAL  SCHOOL  IN  CONNECTICUT. 

have  two  or  three  professors,  men  of  talents  and  habits  adapted  to  the 
pursuit,  who  should  devote  their  lives  to  the  object  of  the  'Theory  and 
Practice  of  the  Education  of  Youth,'  and  who  should  prepare  and  de- 
liver, and  print,  if  you  and  they  please,  a  course  of  lectures  on  the 
subject. 

Let  the  Institution  be  furnished  with  a  library,  which  should  contain 
all  the  works,  theoretical  and  practical,  in  all  languages,  which  can  be 
obtained  on  the  subject  of  education,  and  also  with  all  the  apparatus 
that  modern  ingenuity  has  devised  for  this  purpose;  such  as  maps, 
charts,  globes,  orreries,  &c.  &c. 

Let  there  be  connected  with  the  Institution  a  school  smaller  or 
larger,  as  circumstances  might  dictate,  of  indigent  children  and  youth, 
and  especially  of  foreign  youth  whom  we  are  rearing  for  future  benevo- 
lent efforts,  in  which  the  theories  of  the  professors  might  be  reduced 
to  practice,  and  from  which  daily  experience  would  derive  a  thousand 
useful  instructions. 

To  such  an  Institution  let  young  men  resort,  of  piety,  of  talents,  of 
industry,  and  of  adaptedness  to  the  business  of  the  instructors  of  youth, 
and  who  would  expect  to  devote  their  lives  to  so  important  an  occupa- 
tion. Let  them  attend  a  regular  course  of  lectures  on  the  subject  of 
education;  read  the  best  works;  take  their  turns  in  the  instruction  of 
the  experimental  school,  and  after  thus  becoming  qualified  for  their 
office,  leave  the  Institution  with  a  suitable  certificate  or  diploma, 
recommending  them  to  the  confidence  of  the  public." 

In  1838,  an  "Act  to  provide  for  the  better  supervision  of 
Common  Schools,"  creating  a  Board  of  Commissioners,  with 
a  Secretary,  who  was  "to  devote  his  whole  time  to  ascertain 
the  condition,  increase  the  interest,  and  promote  the  useful- 
ness of  common  schools,"  was  passed  by  the  Legislature.  In 
a  speech  made  by  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  that  re- 
ported the  bill,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  (Henry 
Barnard,  of  Hartford,)  the  following  remarks  were  made  in 
reference  to  this  particular  subject: 

"This  measure,  if  adopted  and  sustained  by  the  Legislature  and  the 
people  for  ten  years,  must  result  in  making  some  legislative  provision 
for  the  better  education,  and  special  training  of  teachers  for  their  deli- 
cate and  difficult  labors.  Every  man  who  received  his  early  education 
in  the  district  schools  of  Connecticut,  must  be  conscious,  and  most  of 
us  must  exhibit  in  our  own  mental  habits,  and  in  the  transactions  of 
ordinary  business,  the  evidence  of  the  defective  instruction  to  which 
we  were  subjected  in  these  schools.  And  no  one  can  spend  a  half  hour 
in  the  best  common  school  in  his  neighborhood,  without  seeing,  both  in 
the  arrangements,  instruction,  and  discipline  of  the  teacher,  the  want, 
not  only  of  knowledge  on  his  part,  but  particularly  of  a  practical  abil- 
ity to  make  what  he  does  know  available.  He  has  never  studied  and 
practiced  his  art,  the  almost  creative  art  of  teaching,  under  an  ex- 
perienced master,  and  probably  has  never  seen,  much  less  spent  any 
considerable  portion  of  time  visiting,  any  better  schools  than  the  one 
in  which  he  was  imperfectly  taught — in  which  he  said  his  lessons,  as 
the  business  is  significantly  described  in  a  phrase  in  common  use. 

The  first  step  will  be  to  get  at  the  fact,  and  if  it  is  as  I  suppose,  that 
our  teachers  are  not  qualified,  and  that  there  is  now  no  adequate  pro- 
vision made  in  our  Academies  and  higher  seminaries  for  the  right 
qualification  of  teachers  of  district  schools,  then  let  the  fact  be  made 


NORMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT.  13 

known  to  the  Legislature  and  the  people,  by  reports,  by  the  press,  and 
by  popular  addresses, — the  only  ways  in  which  the  Board  can  act,  on 
either  the  Legislature  or  the  schools; — and  in  time,  sooner  or  later, 
we  shall  have  the  seminaries,  and  the  teachers,  unless  the  laws  which 
have  heretofore  governed  the  progress  of  society,  and  of  education  in 
particular,  shall  cease  to  operate.  It  is  idle  to  expect  good  schools  until 
we  have  good  teachers,  and  the  people  will  rest  satisfied  with  such 
teachers  as  they  have,  until  their  attention  is  directed  to  the  subject, 
and  until  we  can  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  employing  better,  and 
show  how  they  can  be  made  better,  by  proper  training  in  classes  or 
seminaries  established  for  this  specific  purpose.  With  better  teachers 
will  come  better  compensation  and  more  permanent  employment.  The 
people  pay  now  quite  enough  for  the  article  they  get.  It  is  dear  at 
even  the  miserably  low  price  at  which  so  much  of  it  can  be  purchased. 
Let  us  have  light  on  the  whole  subject  of  teachers, — their  qualifica- 
tions, preparation,  compensation  and  supervision,  for  on  these  points 
there  is  a  strange  degree  of  indifference,  not  to  say  ignorance,  on  the 
part  both  of  individuals,  and  of  the  public  generally." 

During  the  year  following  the  establishment  of  the  Board, 
the  Secretary,  (Mr.  Barnard,)  published  in  the  Connecticut 
Common  School  Journal  a  number  of  articles,  original  and 
selected,  in  which  the  professional  education  of  teachers  was 
discussed,  and  the  history  of  Normal  Schools  in  Prussia, 
Holland,  and  France  presented.  In  the  course  of  the  four 
years  in  which  the  Journal  was  published,  the  Essays  of  Mr. 
Gallaudet,  the  Report  of  Prof.  Stowe  on  Normal  Schools  and 
Teachers'  Seminaries,  all  that  portion  of  Prof.  Baches  Re- 
port on  Education  in  Europe,  devoted  to  an  account  of  par- 
ticular institutions  for  the  education  of  teachers,  and  many 
other  documents  and  articles  on  the  same  subject,  were 
spread  before  the  people  of  this  state.  Of  several  numbers 
of  the  Journal  devoted  to  these  publications,  more  than  ten 
thousand  copies  were  circulated. 

In  the  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Commissioners  of  Common  Schools,  submitted  to  the 
General  Assembly,  in  May,  1839,  the  establishment  "of  at 
least  one  seminary  for  teachers,"  is  urged  in  the  following 
manner : 

"As  there  are  some  who  still  regard  it  as  an  experiment,  it  can  be 
at  first  for  the  training  of  female  teachers  for  the  common  schools. 
Such  an  institution,  with  a  suitable  principal  and  assistants,  and  es- 
pecially a  model  school  connected  with  it,  in  which  theory  could  be 
carried  into  practice,  and  an  example  given  of  what  a  district  school 
ought  to  be,  would,  by  actual  results,  give  an  impulse  to  the  cause  of 
popular  education,  and  the  procuring  of  good  teachers,  that  could  be 
given  in  no  other  way.  The  time  of  continuance  at  such  an  institution 
could  be  longer  or  shorter  according  to  circumstances.  Even  a  short 
continuance  at  it  would  often  be  of  vast  benefit.  It  would  furnish  an 
illustration  of  better  methods  of  instruction  and  government  than  "the 
district  school  as  it  is"  can  give,  which  is  the  only  model  a  large  ma- 
jority of  our  teachers  are  now  familiar  with.  The  expense  to  those 
attending,  need  not  be  great,  if  such  a  seminary  were  moderately  en- 


14  NORMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT. 

dowed  from  the  public  treasury,  and  the  contributions  of  towns  and 
public  spirited  individuals.  To  secure  this  most  desirable  co-operation, 
the  state  approprfation  might  be  made  on  condition  that  an  equal  or 
greater  amount  be  raised  from  other  sources.  Once  established,  it 
would  speedily  draw  to  it  numbers  of  our  young  women,  to  improve 
the  qualifications  they  already  possess  for  teaching,  and  give  the  ex- 
perience and  skill  which  are  necessary.  If  wisely  managed,  it  would 
give  credentials  to  none  but  the  best  of  teachers. 

They  will  command  good  wages.  Those  employing  them  would  ex- 
pect to  give  such  wages.  For  the  object  in  applying  to  this  source 
would  be  to  get  teachers  of  superior  qualifications  at  an  enhanced 
price.  The  supply  would  create  a  demand.  The  demand  would  in  turn 
secure  a  greater  supply  of  well-educated  teachers  for  the  primary 
schools.  Through  them,  better  methods  of  teaching,  by  which  an  in- 
creased amount  of  instruction,  and  that  of  a  more  practical  character, 
would  be  disseminated  through  a  large  number  of  districts.  The  good 
done  would  thus  not  be  confined  to  the  comparative  few  who  should 
pursue  the  studies  of  the  seminary,  or  acquire  skill  and  experience  in 
the  model  school.  Each  would  carry  out  the  same  methods.  Enter- 
prising teachers,  too,  who  had  not  enjoyed  the  same  opportunity  for 
improvement,  would  strive  to  excel  those  who  had;  and  thus  a  whole- 
some spirit  of  emulation  would  be  provoked  among  teachers. 

One  such  seminary,  with  the  model  school  annexed,  or  rather  form- 
ing an  essential  part  of  the  institution,  where  the  best  methods  of 
school  government,  and  all  the  numerous  and  complicated  processes 
of  teaching,  developing,  and  guiding  the  human  mind,  and  cultivating 
the  moral  nature,  could  be  taught  and  illustrated,  would  be  the  safest 
and  least  expensive  way  of  testing  the  practicability  of  introducing 
others,  both  for  males  and  females,  into  every  county  of  the  state,  as  a 
part  of  our  common  school  system." 

This  document  was  referred  to  a  "Joint  Select  Committee 
on  Common  Schools,"  of  the  two  Houses  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, to  whom  the  following  "Report  and  Resolution  re- 
specting the  Education  of  Teachers,"  was  submitted,  May, 
1839: 

"The  Joint  Select  Committee  on  Common  Schools,  to  whom  was  re- 
ferred the  Report  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Common  Schools, 
together  with  the  Report  of  their  Secretary,  have  had  the  same  under 
consideration,  and  beg  leave  to  report  in  part,  that  in  their  estimation, 
the  main  deficiency  in  the  common  schools  of  the  State,  is  an  inade- 
quate supply  of  well-qualified  teachers,  and  that  to  supply  this  de- 
ficiency, and  thereby  improve  the  quality,  and  increase  the  amount  of 
instruction  communicated  in  these  schools,  which  must  forever  remain 
the  principal  reliance  of  a  vast  majority  of  parents  for  the  education 
of  their  children,  the  experience  of  other  states  and  countries  demon- 
strates the  necessity  of  making  some  legislative  provision  for  the 
education  of  teachers.  With  this  view,  and  to  secure  the  co-operation 
of  counties,  towns  and  individuals  who  may  be  more  directly  benefitted 
by  this  appropriation,  or  who  may  choose  to  unite  with  the  State  in 
elevating  the  character  of  the  common  schools  in  the  mode  attempted, 
the  Committee  recommend  the  passage  of  the  accompanying  resolu- 
tion. All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted, 

By  order  of  the  Committee, 

JOHN  A.  ROCKWELL,  Chairman. 

Resolved,  That  the  Comptroller  of  public  accounts  is  hereby  author- 
ized to  draw  an  order  on  the  Treasurer,  in  favor  of  the  Board  of  Com- 


NORMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT.  15 

missioners  of  Common  Schools,  for  the  sum  of  $5000,  or  such  portions 
thereof  as  they  may  request,  to  be  paid  out  of  any  money  not  other- 
wise appropriated;  provided  said  Board  shall  certify  that  an  amount 
equal  to  that  applied  for,  has  been  placed  at  their  disposal;  both  sums 
to  be  expended  under  the  direction  of  said  Board  in  promoting  and 
securing  the  qualifications  in  teachers  for  the  common  schools  of 
Connecticut." 

The  resolution  called  forth  a  full  expression  of  opinion  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  was  finally  passed  in 
that  body  without  a  dissenting  voice. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Board,  who  was  a  member  from 
Hartford,  in  the  course  of  discussion,  made  the  following 
remarks  in  the  House  of  Representatives : 

"The  report  of  the  Committee,  brief  as  it,  is,  embodies  the  substance 
of  all  I  should  have  to  say,  if  I  should  review  in  detail  the  condition 
of  our  common  schools,  with  a  view  of  proposing  a  series  of  measures 
for  their  improvement.  The  great  want  of  these  schools  is  that  of 
better  teachers.  Good  teachers  will  make  better  schools,  and  schools 
made  better  by  the  labors  of  good  teachers,  is  the  best  argument  which 
can  be  addressed  to  the  community  in  favor  of  improved  school-houses, 
a  judicious  selection  of  a  uniform  series  of  text  books  in  the  schools 
of  the  same  society,  of  vigilant  and  intelligent  supervision,  and  liberal 
appropriations  for  school  purposes.  Give  me  good  teachers,  and  in  five 
years  I  will  work  not  a  change,  but  a  revolution  in  the  education  of 
the  children  of  this  State.  I  will  not  only  improve  the  results,  but 
the  machinery,  the  entire  details  of  the  system  by  which  these  results 
are  produced.  Every  good  teacher  will  himself  become  a  pioneer,  and 
a  missionary  in  the  cause  of  educational  improvement.  The  necessity 
of  giving  such  a  teacher  every  facility  of  a  well-located,  well-ventilated, 
and  well-seated  school-house,  of  giving  the  teacher  a  timely  supply  of 
the  best  text  books  and  apparatus,  and  of  keeping  him  employed 
through  the  year,  and  from  year  to  year,  with  just  such  pupils  and 
studies  as  he  can  teach  to  the  best  advantage — these  things  will  be 
seen  and  felt  by  parents,  and  by  districts.  And  the  public,  as  repre- 
sented in  the  Legislature,  will  see  to  it  that  much  of  our  defective 
legislation  is  supplied  by  that  which  will  create  and  sustain  a  popular 
interest  in  the  subject,  lead  to  the  appointment  of  faithful  officers, 
assign  to  each  class  of  officers  appropriate  duties,  subject  all  appropri- 
ations of  school  money  to  severe  scrutiny,  provide  for  the  training 
and  adequate  compensation  of  good  teachers,  and  the  employment  of 
such  teachers  in  schools  of  different  grades.  The  idea  of  employing  a 
graduate  of  a  college  to  teach  the  alphabet  to  young  children,  will  be 
given  up,  not  only  as  poor  economy,  but  as  leading  to  the  neglect  of 
accomplished  female  teachers,  who  can  do  not  only  that  work,  but  the 
whole  work  of  education  in  primary  and  in  small  district  schools, 
much  better  than  the  best  male  teachers.  But  let  us  not  deceive  our- 
selves. Five  thousand  dollars  will  not  make  adequate  provision  for 
the  training  of  teachers.  The  entire  sum  will  not  properly  endow  a 
Normal  School.  Small  as  the  sum  is,  it  is  the  largest  sum  I  dare 
propose  at  this  time,  and  so  advised  the  Committee.  But  as  one  of 
those  who  may  be  intrusted  with  its  expenditure,  I  should  not  advise 
its  appropriation  at  this  time,  to  the  establishment  of  a  Normal  School. 
This  sum  should  be  so  expended  as  to  reach,  if  practicable,  every  teach- 
er in  the  state.  The  teachers  should  be  induced  to  come  together  for 
a  week,  or  a  month,  and  attend  a  course  of  instruction  on  the  best 
methods  of  school  teaching  and  government.  They  should  profit  by 


16  NORMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT. 

the  lectures  and  practical  hints  of  experienced  teachers.  They  should 
have  access  to,  and  be  induced  to  purchase  and  read  good  books  on  the 
theory  and  practice  of  teaching.  They  should  be  induced  to  form  asso- 
ciations for  mutual  improvement,  the  advancement  of  their  common 
profession,  and  the  general  improvement  of  education,  and  the  schools 
of  the  state.  They  are  the  natural  guardians  of  this  great  interest — 
at  least  they  are  the  co-operators  with  parents  in  this  work  of  edu- 
cating the  rising  generation,  to  take  the  place  of  that  which  is  passing 
off  the  stage.  They  are  the  chosen  priesthood  of  education — they  must 
bear  the  ark  on  their  shoulders.  The  appropriation  thus  applied,  so  as 
to  improve  the  teachers  now  in  the  school,  and  create  in  them  a  thirst 
for  something  higher  and  better  than  can  be  given  in  any  temporary 
course  of  instruction,  will  lead  to  the  establishment  of  an  institution 
for  the  professional  education  and  training  of  teachers,  the  great 
agency  by  which  the  cause  of  education  is  to  be  carried  upward  and 
onward  in  this  state.  Though  the  prospect  is  dark  enough,  I  think 
I  can  see  the  dawning  of  a  better  day,  on  the  mountain  tops,  and  the 
youngest  members  of  this  house,  if  they  live  to  reach  the  age  of  the 
oldest,  will  see  a  change  pass  over  the  public  mind,  and  over  public 
action,  not  only  in  respect  to  the  professional  education  of  teachers, 
but  the  whole  subject  of  common  schools.  Old,  dilapidated,  incon- 
venient school-houses  will  give  place  to  new,  attractive,  and  commodi- 
ous structures.  Young  children  will  be  placed  universally  under  the 
care  of  accomplished  female  teachers;  female  teachers  will  be  em- 
ployed in  every  grade  of  schools  as  assistants,  and  in  most  of  our 
country  districts,  as  sole  principals:  a  school  of  a  'higher  order'  than 
the  district  school  will  receive  the  older  boys  and  girls,  not  only  of  a 
district,  but  of  a  society,  and  the  common  school  will  no  longer  be 
regarded  as  common,  because  it  is  cheap,  inferior,  and  patronized  only 
by  the  poor,  and  those  who  are  indifferent  to  the  education  of  their 
children,  but  common  as  the  light  and  the  air,  because  its  blessings 
are  open  to  all,  and  enjoyed  by  all.  The  passage  of  this  resolution  will 
hasten  on  that  day;  but  whether  the  resolution  is  passed  or  not,  that 
day  will  assuredly  come,  and  it  will  bring  along  a  train  of  rich 
blessings  which  will  be  felt  in  the  field  and  the  workshop,  and  convert 
many  a  home  into  a  circle  of  unfading  smiles.  For  one,  I  mean  to 
enjoy  the  satisfaction  of  the  labor,  let  who  will  enter  into  the  harvest." 

In  the  Senate  it  was  referred  to  the  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners of  Common  Schools,  to  report  to  the  next  General 
Assembly  a  specific  plan  of  expenditure. 

What  the  Legislature  thus  refused  to  do,  the  Secretary 
undertook  to  do  at  his  own  expense,  in  order  "to  show  the 
practicability  of  making  some  provision  for  the  better  qual- 
ification of  common  school  teachers,  by  giving  them  an  op- 
portunity to  revise  and  extend  their  knowledge  of  the  stud- 
ies usually  pursued  in  district  schools,  and  of  the  best  meth- 
ods of  school  arrangements,  instruction  and  government, 
under  the  recitations  and  lectures  of  experienced  and  well- 
known  teachers  and  educators." 

A  class  was  formed  from  such  teachers  of  Hartford  coun- 
ty as  were  disposed  to  come  together  on  public  notice,  and 
placed  under  the  general  charge  of  Mr.  Wright,  the  Prin- 
cipal of  the  Grammar  School.  Mr.  Wright  gave  instruction 


NORMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT.  17 

in  Grammar  and  in  methods  of  school  keeping.  Mr.  Post,  a 
teacher  in  the  Grammar  School,  reviewed  the  whole  subject 
of  Mental  and  Practical  Arithmetic,  with  full  explanations 
of  the  difficult  points  in  Fractions,  Roots,  &c.  Professor 
Davies  explained  the  different  parts  of  the  higher  Mathe- 
matics, so  far  as  they  were  ever  taught  in  district  schools, 
or  would  help  to  explain  elementary  Arithmetic.  Rev.  Mr. 
Barton,  formerly  connected  with  the  Teachers'  Seminary 
at  Andover,  gave  lessons  in  Reading.  Rev.  T.  H.  Gallaudet 
explained  how  Composition  could  be  taught  even  to  the 
younger  classes  in  schools,  and  gave  several  familiar  lectures 
on  school  government,  and  the  instruction  of  very  young 
children  by  means  of  the  slate.  Mr.  Brace,  Principal  of 
Hartford  Female  Seminary,  explained  the  first  principles 
of  Mathematical  and  Astronomical  Geography,  the  use  of 
Globes,  &c.  Mr.  Snow,  Principal  of  the  Center  District 
School,  gave  several  practical  lessons  in  methods  of  teach- 
ing, with  classes  in  his  own  school.  Mr.  Barnard  delivered 
several  lectures  explanatory  of  the  relations  of  the  teacher 
to  the  school  system,  to  parents  and  their  pupils ;  also  on  the 
laws  of  health  to  be  practically  observed  by  pupils  and 
teachers  in  the  school-room;  and  on  the  best  modes  of  con- 
ducting the  Teachers'  Associations,  and  interesting  parents. 
A  portion  of  each  day  was  also  devoted  to  oral  discussions 
and  written  essays  on  subjects  connected  with  teaching, 
and  to  visiting  the  best  schools  in  Hartford.  Before  separat- 
ing, the  members  of  the  Teachers'  Class  published  a  "Card," 
expressing  "their  most  cordial  thanks,  for  the  very  excellent 
course  of  instruction  which  they  have  been  permitted  to  en- 
joy during  a  few  weeks  past.  They  also  beg  leave  to  present 
their  sincere  thanks  to  those  gentlemen  who  have  so  kindly 
instructed  them,  for  the  very  familiar,  lucid  and  interesting 
manner  in  which  the  different  subjects  have  been  present- 
ed." 

On  the  success  of  this  experiment,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Board,  in  the  Connecticut  Common  School  Journal,  for  No- 
vember, 1839,  says, 

"We  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  a  judicious  application  of 
one-fifth  of  the  sum  appropriated  unanimously  by  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, to  promote  the  education  of  teachers  for  common  schools, 
in  different  sections  of  the  State,  would  have  accomplished  more  for 
the  usefulness  of  the  coming  winter  schools  and  the  ultimate  pros- 
perity of  the  school  system,  than  the  expenditure  of  half  the  avails  of 
the  School  Fund  in  the  present  way.  One  thousand  at  least  of  the 
eighteen  hundred  teachers,  would  have  enjoyed  an  opportunity  of  crit- 
ically revising  the  studies  which  they  will  be  called  upon  to  teach, 
with  a  full  explanation  of  all  the  principfes  involved,  and  with  refer- 

B 


18  NORMAL  SCHOOL  IN  CONNECTICUT. 

ence  to  the  connection  which  one  branch  of  knowledge  bears  to  an- 
other, and  also  to  the  best  methods  of  communicating  each,  and  the 
adaptation  of  different  methods  to  different  minds.  They  would  have 
become  familiar  with  the  views  and  methods  of  experienced  teachers, 
as  they  are  carried  out  in  better  conducted  schools  than  those  with 
which  they  had  been  familiar.  They  would  have  entered  upon  their 
schools,  with  a  rich  fund  of  practical  knowledge,  gathered  from  obser- 
vation, conversation  and  lectures;  and  with  many  of  their  own  defec- 
tive, erroneous,  and  perhaps  mischievous  views,  corrected  and  im- 
proved. Who  can  tell  how  many  minds  will  be  perverted,  how  many 
tempers  ruined,  how  much  injury  done  to  the  heart,  the  morals,  and 
the  manners  of  children,  in  consequence  of  the  injudicious  methods  of 
inexperienced  and  incompetent  teachers,  the  coming  winter?  The 
heart,  the  manners,  the  morals,  the  minds  of  the  children  are,  or  should 
be  in  the  eye  of  the  state,  too  precious  materials  for  a  teacher  to 
experiment  upon,  with  a  view  to  qualify  himself  for  his  profession; 
and  yet  the  teacher  is  compelled  to  do  so  under  the  present  order  of 
things.  He  has  no  opportunity  afforded  him,  as  every  mechanic  has, 
to  learn  his  trade;  and  if  he  had,  there  is  but  little  inducement  held 
out  for  him  to  do  this.  No  man  is  so  insane  as  to  employ  a  workman 
to  construct  any  valuable  or  delicate  piece  of  mechanism,  who  is  to 
learn  how  to  do  it  for  the  first  time  on  that  very  article.  No  one 
employs  any  other  than  an  experienced  artist  to  repair  a  watch.  No 
parent  intrusts  the  management  of  a  lawsuit,  involving  his  property 
or  his  reputation,  to  an  attorney  who  has  not  studied  his  profession 
and  given  evidence  of  his  ability.  No  one  sends  for  a  physician  to 
administer  to  his  health,  who  has  not  studied  the  human  constitution 
and  the  nature  and  uses  of  medicine.  No  one  sends  a  shoe  to  be 
mended,  or  a  horse  to  be  shod,  or  a  plough  to  be  repaired,  except  to  an 
experienced  workman;  and  yet  parents  will  employ  teachers,  who  are 
to  educate  their  children  for  two  worlds — who  are  to  mould  and  fashion 
and  develop  that  most  delicate,  complicated,  and  wonderful  piece  of 
mechanism,  the  human  being,  the  most  delicate  and  wonderful  of  all 
God's  creations — to  fit  them  for  usefulness  in  life,  to  become  upright 
and  intelligent  witnesses,  jurors,  electors,  legislators,  and  rulers,  safe 
in  their  power  to  resist  the  manifold  temptations  to  vice  and  crime 
which  will  beset  their  future  path,  strong  and  happy  in  the  'godlike 
union  of  right  feelings  with  correct  principles.' " 

From  the  proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners,  it 
appears  that  the  subject  received  their  attention,  and  they 
thus  refer  to  it  in  their  Report  of  1840 : 

"Wherever  Normal  Schools  have  been  established  and  ably  sus- 
tained, the  experiment  has  uniformly  resulted  in  supplying  teachers  of 
a  superior  order.  As  in  every  other  art  whose  principles  are  reduced 
to  rule,  and  matured  into  a  system,  the  learner  is  not  limited  to  the 
slow  and  scanty  results  of  his  single,  unaided  experience,  but  is  at 
once  enriched  with  the  accumulated  treasures  of  all  who  have  labored 
in  the  same  mine  before  him.  Without  such  an  opportunity,  he  may 
be  compared  to  the  medical  practitioner,  who  commences  his  labors 
without  the  knowledge  of  any  settled  principles  of  his  art,  but  expects 
to  acquire  his  knowledge  of  his  profession  in  the  course  of  his  prac- 
tice. If  it  is  plain  that  the  physician  needs,  at  the  commencement  of 
his  career,  that  knowledge  of  the  healing  art,  which  contains  the  em- 
bodied experience  of  those  who  have  gone  before  him,  and  carried  his 
profession  to  the  highest  degree  of  excellence,  no  less  does  the  in- 
structor of  a  school  need  the  wisdom  of  his  predecessors  to  guide  him, 
at  his  first  setting  out;  nor  can  he  any  better  afford  to  wait  for  the 


NORMAL  SCHOOL  IN  CONNECTICUT.  19 

slow  returns  of  his  own  experience.  Indeed,  there  is  in  the  case  of 
the  young  teacher,  a  peculiar  need  of  this  wisdom  in  advance,  since 
the  employment  is  not  usually  a  business  for  life,  but  only  of  a  few 
years  at  farthest, — a  period  in  itself  too  short  to  gain  much  of  the 
wisdom  of  experience,  and  terminated  almost  as  soon  as  such  wisdom 
begins  to  be  acquired. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  Board,  we  can  not  make  an  adequate  provision 
for  the  supply  of  the  requisite  number  of  teachers,  who  shall  be  at 
once  capable  of  teaching,  in  the  best  manner,  all  that  the  pupils  of  our 
common  schools  are  capable  of  learning,  and  of  conducting  the  order 
and  government  of  their  institutions,  according  to  the  most  approved 
methods,  without  the  establishment  of  NORMAL  SCHOOLS,  devoted  ex- 
clusively to  the  education  of  teachers  in  the  principles  and  practice 
of  their  profession,  and  guided  by  men  eminent  for  their  talents  and 
practical  wisdom.  But  if  it  is  thought  that  we  are  not  prepared  to 
erect  and  sustain  seminaries  of  this  independent  and  elevated  descrip- 
tion, the  Board  would  suggest  the  expediency  of  commencing  the  work 
of  educating  teachers  on  a  limited  scale,  by  connecting  a  department 
for  this  purpose,  with  some  of  the  existing  academies  in  different 
sections  of  the  state.  A  small  amount  of  funds,  judiciously  expended 
in  the  modes  indicated  by  the  Secretary  in  his  Report,  would,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Board,  accomplish  a  great,  immediate  good  in  improving 
the  qualifications  of  our  common  school  teachers. 

The  resolution  appropriating  five  thousand  dollars  from  the  Treas- 
ury, to  be  expended  by  the  Board,  in  promoting  and  securing  the 
requisite  qualification  of  teachers  for  the  common  schools  of  the  state, 
provided,  that  an  amount  equal  to  that  applied  for  should  be  placed  at 
their  disposal  from  other  sources,  for  the  same  object,  which  passed 
the  House  of  Representatives,  at  the  last  session  of  the  Legislature, 
and  was  afterward,  by  a  joint  vote  of  both  Houses,  referred  to  the 
Board  for  some  specific  plans  of  expenditure,  has  received  the  con- 
sideration of  a  Committee  of  their  number,  and  of  the  Board  at  its 
last  meeting.  In  their  opinion,  the  sum  is  too  small,  even  with  such 
local  and  individual  subscriptions,  as  could  now  be  raised,  to  authorize 
the  establishment  of  a  thoroughly  organized  Normal  School.  If  this 
sum,  therefore,  had  been  placed  at  their  disposal,  they  would  have 
expended  it  in  the  different  counties  of  the  state,  under  such  circum- 
stances as  would  have  called  forth  as  widely  extended  co-operation  and 
contributions  from  towns  and  individuals  as  possible,  and  have  diffused 
its  agency  over  a  period  of  three  years." 

The  Secretary,  in  his  Report  to  the  Board,  in  1840,  dis- 
cusses the  whole  subject  in  the  following  manner: 

"The  most  efficient  instrumentality,  however,  on  which  we  can  rely 
for  the  permanent  and  almost  indefinite  improvement  of  education  in 
our  common  schools,  is  the  employment  of  teachers  properly  qualified 
for  their  duties.  The  want  of  such  teachers  is  widely  felt,  and  the 
absence  of  all  arrangements  for  securing  the  necessary  supply,  is  the 
principal  defect  in  our  system. 

What  can  be  done  to  remove  this  defect?  Upon  the  practical  solution 
of  this  problem  depends  the  immediate  and  permanent  prosperity  of 
our  schools. 

1.  The  first  and  necessarily  imperfect  method  of  securing  well-quali- 
fied teachers,  would  be  to  raise  the  standard  of  qualification  now  re- 
quired by  law,  and  to  create  a  county  or  senatorial  district  board  for 
the  examination  of  teachers.  This  would  operate  to  induce  candidates 
to  prepare  themselves  more  extensively  and  thoroughly  in  the  studies 


20  NORMAL  SCHOOL  IN  CONNECTICUT. 

which  they  are  to  teach,  and  on  which  they  are  to  be  examined,  and 
would  exclude  in  a  great  measure  the  operation  of  local,  family,  and 
personal  influences,  in  granting  or  withholding  the  necessary  certifi- 
cates. There  is,  however,  no  sure  test  of  ability  and  skill  in  instruc- 
tion and  government,  but  actual  demonstration  in  the  school-room.  To 
secure  this  practical  knowledge,  other  means  than  those  of  examina- 
tion, however  strict  and  impartial,  such  as  now  exist  in  the  State, 
must  be  provided. 

2.  A  second  method  would  be  to  improve  the  present  sources  relied 
on  for  supporting  teachers.  These  sources  are  the  common  schools, 
and  the  higher  seminaries  of  education.  Both  might  be  made  far  more 
efficient  than  they  now  are  in  this  respect,  by  engrafting  upon  them 
a  class  or  department  for  the  education  of  teachers. 

From  the  older  and  more  advanced  scholars  of  either  sex  of  the 
district  schools,  or  the  high  school  if  it  exists,  such  as  have  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  their  scholarship  and  good  conduct,  and 
manifest  the  requisite  talents,  as  well  as  desire  to  become  teachers, 
might  be  selected  to  receive,  in  the  evening  and  at  such  other  times 
as  might  be  found  convenient,  specific  instruction  in  the  theory  and 
practice  of  teaching.  These  might  be  allowed  to  assist  in  their  re- 
spective schools  under  the  direction  of  the  teacher,  with  great  profit  to 
themselves,  and  to  the  younger  classes  especially.  They  would  thus 
have  an  opportunity  of  applying  their  instructions  to  practice,  they 
would  not  be  educated  above  their  business,  and  would  acquire  the 
habits  and  methods  of  teaching  in  the  very  class  of  schools  which  they 
would  afterward  be  called  upon  to  instruct.  If  school  societies  under- 
stood their  own  interest,  they  would  establish  a  common  school  of  a 
higher  order,  if  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  provide  a  home  supply 
of  better  teachers  for  their  respective  districts.  In  Holland  this 
method  was  formerly  the  sole  resort  for  the  training  of  teachers,  but 
in  perfecting  her  system  of  primary  instruction,  regularly  organized 
Normal  Schools  have  been  lately  established.  In  the  public  schools  of 
the  city  of  New  York,  this  plan  is  thoroughly  organized  and  carried 
out.  In  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  a  model  school  is  connected  with  it. 

Academies  and  similar  institutions  can  become  more  useful  than 
they  now  are  in  supplying  good  teachers — 

First,  by  instituting  a  'teachers'  class'  in  the  winter  and  spring,  for 
young  ladies,  and  in  the  summer  and  autumn  for  young  men,  who 
have  been  teachers,  or  expect  to  become  such  soon.  Here  they  should 
have  an  opportunity  to  revise  the  studies  of  the  district  school,  and 
receive  such  knowledge  of  the  best  methods  and  familiar  practical 
illustrations  as  the  principal  and  other  friends  of  education  can  give 
during  the  period  allotted  to  the  course.  An  experiment  of  this  kind 
was  tried  at  Hartford,  in  the  Grammar  School,  with  a  class  of  twenty- 
six  young  men,  and  in  the  Female  Seminary  with  a  class  of  sixteen 
young  ladies,  with  the  most  gratifying  results. 

Second,  by  organizing  a  department  for  the  more  liberal  and  thor- 
ough education  of  teachers.  Such  a  department  should  include  a  pro- 
fessor, who  should  devote  his  whole  time  to  the  theory  and  practice  of 
education,  a  course  of  instruction  embracing  all  the  studies  of  the 
common  schools,  with  the  best  methods  of  communicating  them  to 
others,  and  a  model  school.  The  model  school  might  be  a  primary 
department  of  the  academy,  under  an  appropriate  assistant,  or  the 
neighboring  district  school,  in  which,  under  the  supervision  of  the 
professor,  the  best  methods  should  be  pursued.  The  students  of  the 
department  should  have  an  opportunity,  not  only  of  witnessing  fre- 
quently and  familiarly  the  exercises  and  management  of  this  school, 


NORMAL  SCHOOL  IN  CONNECTICUT.  21 

but  should  receive  explanations  and  lectures  there,  as  to  the  modes 
pursued,  be  allowed  to  conduct  the  recitations,  and  on  return  to  the 
class-room,  be  required  to  give  their  views,  in  writing  and  orally,  on 
what  they  had  seen  or  heard. 

In  giving  the  above  outline  of  a  properly  organized  'Teachers'  De- 
partment,' I  have  in  reality  incorporated  the  Normal  School  with  the 
Academy.  The  advantages  of  this  arrangement  are  the  saving  of  much 
additional  expense  for  buildings,  apparatus,  and  assistants,  and  the 
liberalizing  influence  of  association  in  the  recitation-room,  and  out  of 
it,  with  persons  destined  to  other  pursuits,  on  the  mind  and  manners 
of  those  who  are  to  become  teachers.  The  disadvantages  are,  in  the 
present  comparatively  low  social  and  literary  position,  accorded  to 
the  profession,  in  public  estimation,  lest  the  department  and  those 
connected  with  it,  should  be  regarded  as  only  an  appendage  to  the 
Academy;  and  those  destined  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  to  become 
teachers,  lose  that  enthusiasm  to  the  proposed  calling,  which  is  essen- 
tial to  eminent  success,  and  acquire,  what  under  the  most  favorable 
circumstances  is  likely  to  come  soon  enough,  a  partiality  for  those 
pursuits,  which  they  see  command  a  higher  social  rank,  more  honor- 
able fame,  and  a  richer  pecuniary  return.  What  is  now  wanted  in 
this  State,  and  in  the  country,  are  institutions  in  which  the  exclusive 
attention  of  men  of  the  first  talents  and  experience  in  education, 
should  be  devoted  to  the  distinct  object  of  giving  the  greatest  practical 
elevation  and  efficiency  to  the  profession  of  common  school  teacher, 
and  where  all  the  arrangements,  to  the  minutest  detail,  should  be 
shaped  to  establish  this  great  end.  This  want  can  be  in  no  way  so 
effectually  supplied  as  by  the  establishment  of,  at  least,  one  thoroughly 
organized  Normal  School." 

The  Board,  in  the  Third  Annual  Report  for  1841,  again 
recommend : 

"That  some  provision  be  made  for  the  establishment  of  Normal 
Schools,  or  Seminaries  for  the  training  of  teachers,  where  a  practical 
knowledge  of  the  best  methods  of  arranging  the  classes  and  studies, 
and  conducting  the  government  and  instruction  of  district  schools,  can 
be  communicated  and  illustrated.  One  such  school,  under  an  experi- 
enced principal  and  assistant,  with  a  model  school  connected  with  it, 
where  theory  can  be  carried  into  practice,  and  an  example  given  of 
what  a  district  school  ought  to  be,  would  draw  to  it  numbers  of  our 
young  men,  and  young  women,  to  improve  the  qualifications  they 
already  possess  for  teaching,  and  gain  the  experience  and  skill  which 
are  necessary. 

An  appropriation  for  this  object  will  supply  a  radical  defect  in  our 
system,  and  give  an  impulse  of  the  most  powerful  and  salutary,  char- 
acter, to  the  cause  of  school  improvement." 

Again,  in  his  Third  Annual  Report,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Board  returns  to  the  subject,  dwelling  more  particularly  on 
the  establishment  of  one  Normal  School: 

"But  the  most  effectual  way  of  improving  the  qualifications  of  teach- 
ers, of  creating  in  them,  and  in  the  community,  a  proper  estimate  of 
the  true  dignity  and  usefulness  of  the  office,  of  carrying  out  into 
practice  the  soundest  views  of  education,  is  to  establish  at  least  one 
institution  for  their  specific  training. 

Such  an  institution,  in  the  outset  at  least,  had  better  be  confined  to 
the  preparation  of  female  teachers.  The  course  of  instruction  should 
have  special  reference  to  common  schools  in  the  country.  The  model 


22  NOBMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT. 

school  should,  as  far  as  practicable,  bear  a  close  resemblance  in  its 
elements  to  an  ordinary  district  school.  The  pupils  should  be  such  as 
are  willing  to  meet  a  portion  of  the  expense  of  residence  at  the  insti- 
tution, by  the  assistance  they  would  render  at  such  times  as  would 
not  interfere  with  the  studies  and  exercises  of  the  place. 

The  whole  spirit  of  the  institution  should  be  such  as  to  invite  those 
only  to  come,  who  have  a  natural  fondness  for  the  office  of  teaching, 
and  are  animated  in  their  preparatory  work,  by  higher  motives  than 
the  hope  of  pecuniary  returns  they  are  likely  to  receive. 

The  establishment  of  one  or  more  schools  of  this  description,  is 
recommended  in  nearly  every  communication  from  school  visitors. 
They  have  been  objected  to,  in  four  instances,  for  the  following  rea- 
sons. 'They  are  of  foreign  origin.'  They  need  not  necessarily  be 
modeled,  and  indeed  ought  not  to  be,  after  foreign  institutions.  They 
should  be  adapted  to  meet  our  own  wants,  to  raise  up  Connecticut 
teachers  for  Connecticut  schools.  The  objection  is  as  valid  against 
institutions  for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  or  the  blind,  or  the  insane,  or 
colleges,  or  even  the  common  school,  which  is  only  an  improvement 
on  the  parochial  schools  of  Germany. 

'They  are  unnecessary:  our  colleges,  academies  and  private  schools, 
can  furnish  teachers  for  the  higher  order  of  common  schools,  and 
these  last  for  the  district  school.'  It  is  possible  that  much  might  be 
done  in  this  way,  but  at  present,  there  are  no  adequate  means  pro- 
vided in  any  of  the  institutions  for  the  specific  training,  or  the 
apprenticeship  required.  We  have  good  teachers,  but  they  have  become 
such,  by  improving  their  native  tact  by  experience  in  the  school-room: 
but  who  knows  how  many  minds  and  hearts  have  been  ruined  or 
injured  by  the  experiments  of  beginners?  The  best  teachers  uni- 
versally acknowledge  the  value  and  necessity  of  such  schools. 

'Those  who  are  educated  there,  will  not  become  teachers  for  life,  or 
teachers  in  common  schools.'  They  will,  however,  be  more  likely  to 
make  teaching  a  profession,  than  any  other  class.  It  would  answer 
a  good  purpose,  even  if  they  taught  for  a  few  years.  To  provide 
against  the  last  result,  the  institution  should  be  confined  to  females, 
and  those  who  receive  its  benefits,  should  come  under  obligations  to 
teach  two  or  three  years  in  common  schools;  but  above  all,  they  should 
be  such  only  as  are  actuated  by  the  highest  devotional  feelings. 

'The  teachers  thus  educated,  will  be  few  compared  with  the  number 
of  schools.'  But  a  beginning  must  be  made,  and  in  the  present  state 
of  the  public  mind,  and  of  the  public  schools,  a  single  demonstration 
of  what  can  be  done,  and  of  the  best  manner  of  doing  it,  is  needed. 
The  good  which  a  few  teachers  properly  trained,  would  do,  would  not 
be  confined  to  the  districts  in  which  they  labored.  Their  schools 
would  become  model  schools  for  other  districts,  and  the  awakening 
influence  of  their  example  and  precept  would  be  felt  all  around  them. 
Teachers  who  have  not  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  such  training,  would 
strive  to  excel  those  who  had,  and  thus  a  wholesome  spirit  of  emulation 
would  be  provoked  among  teachers. 

'Districts  will  not  pay  wages  sufficient  to  employ  teachers  who  are 
thus  prepared.'  There  are  districts  which  pay  liberally,  and  who  look 
long  and  far  to  find  good  teachers.  Such  districts  would  go  directly 
to  such  an  institution  for  their  teachers.  Besides,  an  improvement  in 
the  qualifications  of  teachers,  would  to  some  extent  increase  the  de- 
mand for  them,  and  the  demand  would  increase  the  compensation. 

'The  time  required  for  this  preparation  is  more  than  most  teachers 
can  give.'  Although  it  would  be  desirable  to  extend  the  course  of 


NORMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT.  23 

instruction  to  two  years  at  least,  still  much  can  be  accomplished  in  a 
brief  period.  Six  months'  residence  in  such  an  institution,  with  daily 
practice  or  observation  in  the  model  school,  or  even  a  shorter  period, 
would  be  of  incalculable  service. 

'The  expense  of  such  an  institution  will  be  great.'  Like  other  good 
institutions,  it  will  cost  something,  but  the  cost  will  depend  somewhat 
on  the  scale  with  which  it  is  commenced.  An  appropriation  of  $10,000 
on  the  part  of  the  State,  united  with  what  could  be  raised  by  individual 
subscriptions,  would  be  sufficient  to  make  a  fair  trial." 

In  1844,  a  Committee  of  eight  members,  one  from  each 
county,  was  appointed  by  the  General  Assembly,  to  take  in- 
to consideration  the  state  of  Common  Schools  in  Connecti- 
cut, and  report  on  the  subject  to  the  next  session,  with  plans 
and  suggestions  for  their  improvement.  This  Committee,  in 
their  Report  of  May,  1845,  which  was  printed  and  widely 
circulated,  remark,  that  true  economy,  as  well  as  the  higher 
inducement  of  the  best  interests  of  the  State,  in  the  im- 
proved education  of  its  children,  would  be  promoted  by  the 
establishment  of  a  Normal  School. 

"There  is  one  other  improvement  which  your  Committee  deem  of 
great  importance,  but  which  they  do  not  think  the  present  state  of  the 
public  mind  would  justify,  viz — the  establishment  of  a  Normal  School 
or  Teachers'  Seminary. 

Teaching  is  an  art,  subject  to  certain  rules  and  principles  like  any 
other  art.  It  is  true,  that  individuals  may  attain  some  degree  of  skill 
in  teaching,  without  having  had  regular  and  systematic  instruction  in 
the  art;  as  some  men  do  in  the  arts  of  the  painter,  the  carpenter,  or 
the  smith,  without  having  served  a  regular  apprenticeship.  It  is  true, 
too,  that  every  one  gets  some  idea  of  teaching  while  he  is  himself 
obtaining  the  rudiments  of  knowledge.  But  who  would  intrust  an 
important  work  in  building,  machinery,  or  painting,  or  send  a  son  to 
serve  an  apprenticeship,  with  an  artisan  who  had  not  been  regularly 
taught  his  profession,  unless  indeed  he  were  satisfied  that  by  long 
study  and  experience,  he  had  fully  made  up  for  the  deficiency  in  his 
early  education. 

How  much  more,  then,  should  we  hesitate  to  commit  the  education 
of  our  children  to  unskillful  hands — to  those  who  have  barely  suf- 
ficient attainments  to  entitle  them  to  the  certificate  required  by  law, 
without  having  had  the  slightest  instruction,  or  experience,  in  the  art 
of  teaching,  and  who  even  acquired  the  rudiments  of  knowledge  from 
those  who  were  themselves  exceedingly  deficient  both  in  art  and 
learning. 

By  far  the  greater  part  of  our  teachers,  when  they  begin  to  instruct, 
are  of  this  character.  Many  never  teach  but  a  single  season.  Others, 
who  continue  in  the  profession,  change  their  school,  season  after 
season,  giving  no  satisfaction  to  their  employers,  and  deriving  none 
themselves  from  their  pursuit.  A  few  only  become  successful  teachers, 
and  these  soon  find  their  way,  as  has  before  been  said,  into  such 
common  schools  as  duly  appreciate  their  talents,  or  are  employed  in 
private  schools  and  academies. 

It  is  said  by  experienced  teachers,  that  every  child  in  the  State 
might  obtain,  at  twelve  years  of  age,  under  proper  instruction  in  the 


24  NORMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT. 

common  schools,  a  good  practical  knowledge  in  all  the  branches  re- 
quired by  law  to  be  taught  in  those  schools.  How  different  is  the  fact 
now! 

Your  Committee  are  of  the  opinion  that  true  economy,  as  well  as 
the  higher  inducement  of  the  best  interests  of  the  state,  in  the  im- 
proved education  of  its  children,  would  be  promoted  by  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Normal  School.  The  annual  expense  of  a  school  adapted  to 
this  state,  would  probably  be  about  $4,000,  or  5  cents  a  year  for  each 
child  in  the  state.  The  public,  however,  have  at  present  but  little 
information  on  the  subject.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  that  sooner  or 
later,  these  institutions  will  be  deemed  an  indispensable  part  of  every 
common  school  system." 

In  1846,  the  General  Assembly,  by  a  concurrent  vote,  ap- 
proved "in  the  main,"  of  a  plan,  submitted  by  the  Joint 
Standing  Committee  on  Education,  for  the  improvement  of 
the  school  system,  which  embraced  among  other  features, 
the  establishment  of  a  Normal  School.  This  plan,  with  the 
Report  of  the  Committee,  was  ordered  to  be  printed,  and  two 
thousand  copies  circulated  with  the  laws  relating  to  com- 
mon schools.  The  attention  of  the  school  visitors  in  every 
school  society,  was  specially  called  to  the  subject  by  the  Su- 
perintendent, with  a  request  that  they  would  communicate 
their  views  to  this  department  on  its  various  features.  In 
almost  every  instance  the  Normal  School  feature  of  the  plan 
was  approved,  and  most  heartily  in  those  societies  where 
the  schools  were  in  the  best  condition,  and  the  subject  had 
received  the  most  attention.  In  his  Report  to  the  General 
Assembly  in  May,  1847,  the  Superintendent  submitted  the 
results  of  his  reflections  on  the  subject  as  follows : 

"The  most  important  improvement  recommended  by  the  Committee, 
is  the  establishment  of  a  Normal  School,  or  Seminary  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  teachers,  or  the  training  of  the  young  men  and  young  women 
of  the  state,  who  have  the  requisite  qualifications  of  talent,  tact,  and 
character,  to  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  best  methods  of  school  in- 
struction and  government.  This  subject  has  long  been  before  the 
people  of  this  state.  The  first  distinct  presentation  of  its  claims,  and 
one  of  the  ablest  ever  made,  was  given  by  the  Rev.  T.  H.  Gallaudet, 
of  Hartford,  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Connecticut  Observer,  com- 
menced in  January,  1825,  and  afterward  published  in  a  pamphlet.  This 
pamphlet  has  been  republished  entire,  or  in  copious  extracts,  in  most 
of  the  educational  periodicals  of  the  country,  and  has  undoubtedly 
aided  in  preparing  the  public  mind  for  the  action  which  has  already 
followed  in  several  states,  and  which  is  likely  to  take  place  still  more 
generally.  From  the  communications  received  from  school  visitors  on 
this  point,  both  for  this  and  the  last  year,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
friends  of  school  improvement,  from  every  section  of  the  state,  are 
calling  for  some  legislative  action  on  this  subject. 

The  plan  of  a  Normal  School  or  Teachers'  Seminary,  embraces  a 
thorough  course  of  instruction  in  the  studies  pursued  in  common 
schools  under  competent  teachers,  with  reference  to  teaching  the  same 
things  to  others.  This  last  includes  the  art  of  teaching,  or  a  knowledge 
of  human  nature  and  of  the  human  mind,  and  of  the  order  in  which  its 
several  faculties  should  be  called  into  exercise;  of  the  best  motives 


NORMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT.  25 

by  which  good  habits  of  study  can  be  cultivated  In  the  young;  of  the 
arrangement  and  classification  of  scholars,  and  of  the  best  means  and 
appliances  for  securing  obedience  and  order,  and  for  keeping  alive  an 
interest  in  the  daily  exercises  of  the  school.  To  accomplish  these 
things  thoroughly,  there  must  be  all  the  necessary  apparatus  for  illus- 
tration and  experiment  in  reference  to  the  studies  pursued,  and  a 
model  school  where  the  future  teacher  may,  as  it  were,  serve  an 
apprenticeship  in  the  workshop  of  education.  The  Normal  School 
should  do  for  the  teacher  what  the  directions  of  the  master-workman, 
and  the  usual  term  and  duties  of  the  apprenticeship  do  for  the  future 
mechanic;  and  the  law  school,  or  the  medical  school,  or  the  theological 
seminary  does  for  the  professions  of  law,  medicine  or  theology.  It 
should  give  a  thorough  knowledge  of  what  is  to  be  done,  and  the 
practical  skill  how  to  do  it.  We  have  teachers  who  have  acquired  this 
knowledge  and  skill,  but  in  too  many  instances  they  have  acquired 
the  same  by  experience  and  experiments  in  the  school-room,  at  the 
expense  of  time  lost,  tempers  ruined,  and  minds  distorted,  of  the 
children  of  the  state.  The  Normal  School  affords  an  opportunity  to 
such  persons  as  have  the  requisite  natural  qualifications,  of  acquiring 
the  knowledge  and  experience  necessary  for  the  highest  success,  with- 
out subjecting  the  schools  to  the  ruinous  waste  of  time  and  mind  to 
which  they  are  now  exposed. 

This  subject  has  already  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Legislatures 
of  other  states,  and  it  will  not  probably  be  long  before  a  large  number 
of  our  sister  states  will  enjoy  the  benefits  of  these  institutions.  Surely 
Connecticut,  which  was  the  first  seriously  to  agitate  the  subject,  ought 
not  to  be  the  last  to  avail  herself  of  the  wise  suggestions  of  her  own 
citizens,  and  the  experience  of  two  such  states  as  New  York  and 
Massachusetts.  If  the  Legislature  would  pledge  the  means  to  sustain 
the  annual  expense  of  one  such  school,  on  an  economical  scale,  for  a 
period  long  enough  to  give  the  institution  a  fair  trial,  it  is  believed 
that  there  are  towns  in  which  it  should  be  located,  and  individuals, 
ready  to  provide  the  necessary  buildings,  furniture  and  apparatus." 

This  document  was  referred  to  the  Joint  Standing  Com- 
mittee on  Education,  who  in  their  remarks  on  "the  estab- 
lishment of  schools,  where  teaching  as  an  art  shall  be 
taught,"  say,  "From  these  returns,  your  Committee  have 
been  led  to  suppose  that  the  time  has  come  for  the  State  to 
do  something  for  the  establishment  of  such  seminaries." 

The  Committee  deemed  it  best  for  the  Legislature  to  pro- 
ceed with  caution  in  the  matter,  and  therefore,  after  recom- 
mending provision  for  temporary  Normal  Schools,  or  Teach- 
ers' Institutes,  proposed  the  appointment  of  a  Committee, 
"to  make  due  examination,  and  report  to  the  next  Legisla- 
ture a  definite  plan  for  the  support,  location,  and  internal 
arrangement  of  one  or  more  schools  for  teachers."  This 
Committee  was  accordingly  appointed,  and  after  visiting 
the  Normal  Schools  in  New  York  and  Massachusetts,  sub- 
mitted a  Report  to  the  Legislature,  in  which  they  in  1848, 
recommended  an  appropriation  of  $2,500  a  year  for  four 
years,  toward  the  support  of  a  Normal  School,  to  be  located 
by  a  Board  of  Trustees,  consisting  of  eight  members,  one 
for  each  county,  to  be  chosen  by  the  General  Assembly.  The 


26  NORMAL    SCHOOL    IN    CONNECTICUT. 

Committee  state  that  liberal  offers  were  received  from  sev- 
eral towns,  which  guarantee  that  the  State  shall  be  at  no 
expense  for  buildings,  &c.  The  plan  of  the  Committee  was 
embodied  in  a  Bill  which  passed  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives by  a  large  majority,  and  was  lost  in  the  Senate  by  one 
vote.  The  Committee  in  their  Report  remark: 

"That  in  the  course  of  their  examination,  whatever  doubts  any  of 
them  had  previously  entertained  with  regard  to  the  utility  of  such 
schools,  and  the  expediency  of  establishing  them,  those  doubts  have 
been  entirely  removed; — such  schools  are  no  longer  to  be  regarded  as 
a  doubtful  experiment." 

The  Superintendent,  in  his  Report  for  1849,  after  enum- 
erating the  various  instances  in  which  the  establishment  of 
Normal  Schools  has  been  presented  to  the  Legislature,  adds : 

"Such  is  a  brief  history  of  the  manner  in  which  the  spe- 
cial training  of  teachers  for  their  work,  has  been  brought  be- 
fore the  Legislature  and  the  people  of  the  state.  To  this  it 
may  be  added,  that  many  essays  on  the  subject  have  been 
published  in  the  public  prints  and  in  pamphlet  form,  and 
that  in  the  course  of  the  last  six  years  it  has  been  distinctly 
presented  in  the  written  reports  of  the  school  visitors  of 
more  than  half  of  the  school  societies  of  the  state.  It  would 
be  an  insult  to  the  common  intelligence  of  the  people  of  the 
state  to  suppose  that  the  subject  was  not  understood.  And 
as  no  considerable  opposition  has  been  manifested,  it  may 
fairly  be  presumed  that  they  are  prepared  for  some  action 
on  the  subject." 

And  such  was  the  opinion  of  the  General  Assembly  in 
1849,  as  will  appear  by  the  documents  which  follow.  To  the 
Report  of  the  Superintendent  for  1849,  was  appended  a 
Plan  of  a  Teachers'  Seminary  by  Rev.  Merrill  Richardson, 
of  Terryville,  who  in  an  address  delivered  before  the  School 
Society  of  Plymouth,  in  1842,  and  in  the  Connecticut  School 
Manual,  from  1846  to  1848,  and  in  addresses  delivered  be- 
fore the  Teachers'  Institutes,  and  in  other  ways  by  lip  and 
pen,  proved  himself  an  earnest  and  efficient  advocate  before 
the  people,  of  a  Normal  School  or  Teachers'  Seminary.  To 
this  gentleman,  to  the  Hon.  Seth  P.  Beers,  to  John  P.  Nor- 
ton, Esq.,  of  Farmington,  to  Hon.  Lorin  P.  Waldo,  of  Tol- 
land,  and  particularly  to  James  M.  Bunce,  Esq.,  of  Hart- 
ford, are  the  friends  of  school  improvement  indebted  for 
the  establishment  of  a  Normal  School  in  Connecticut,  in 
just  ten  years  after  the  subject  was  first  officially  brought 
before  the  Legislature. 


LEGISLATION  OF  CONNECTICUT 

RESPECTING  NORMAL  SCHOOLS. 


AN  ACT  for  the  establishment  of  a  State  Normal  School. 

SEC.  1.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in 
General  Assembly  convened,  There  shall  be  established,  as  hereinafter 
provided,  one  Normal  School,  or  seminary  for  the  training  of  teachers 
in  the  art  of  instructing  and  governing  the  common  schools  of  this 
state;  the  object  of  which  Normal  School,  or  seminary,  shall  be,  not  to 
educate  teachers  in  the  studies  now  required  by  law,  but  to  receive 
such  as  are  found  competent  in  these  studies,  in  the  manner  herein- 
after provided,  and  train  them  in  the  best  methods  of  teaching  and 
conducting  common  schools. 

SEC.  2.  There  shall  be  appointed,  by  the  Legislature,  eight  trustees 
of  said  Normal  School,  one  from  each  county  in  the  state;  two  of  whom 
shall,  in  the  first  instance,  hold  their  office  for  one  year,  two  for  two 
years,  two  for  three  years,  and  two  for  four  years,  the  term  of  office 
to  be  by  them  determined,  by  lot  or  otherwise;  the  vacancies  to  be 
filled  by  appointment  by  the  Legislature,  for  the  residue  of  the  term 
which  shall  so  become  vacant;  and  the  Superintendent  of  Common 
Schools,  ex-officio,  shall  also  be  a  member  of  said  board. 

SEC.  3.  The  expenses  necessarily  incurred  by  said  trustees,  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duties,  shall  be  defrayed  out  of  the  funds  herein 
appropriated  for  the  support  of  said  school;  and  they  shall  receive  no 
compensation  for  their  services. 

SEC.  4.  To  said  board  of  trustees  shall  be  committed  the  location  of 
said  school;  the  application  of  the  funds  for  the  support  thereof;  the 
appointment  of  teachers,  and  power  of  removing  the  same;  the  power 
to  prescribe  the  studies  and  exercises  of  the  school,  rules  for  its  man- 
agement, and  granting  diplomas;  and  they  shall  report  annually  to 
the  Legislature  their  own  doings,  and  the  progress  and  condition  of 
the  school,  and  the  said  trustees  are  hereby  authorized  to  change  the 
location  of  said  Normal  School,  from  time  to  time,  as  they  deem  best 
for  the  interest  of  said  school,  and  for  the  accommodation  of  the  pupils 
in  the  different  parts  of  the  state,  provided  suitable  buildings  and 
fixtures  are  furnished  without  expense  to  the  state. 

SEC.  5.  The  number  of  pupils  shall  not  exceed -two  hundred  and 
twenty;  and  the  visitors  of  each  school  society  in  the  state  shall  be 
requested  to  forward  to  the  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  an- 
nually, the  names  of  four  persons,  two  of  each  sex,  applicants  for 
admission  to  said  school,  whom  the  said  visitors  shall  certify  they 
have  examined  and  approved  as  possessed  of  the  qualifications  required 
of  teachers  of  common  schools  in  this  state;  which  applicants  shall 
have  given  to  said  visitors  a  written  declaration,  signed  with  their 
own  hands,  that  their  object  in  seeking  admission  to  the  school  is  to 
qualify  themselves  for  the  employment  of  common  school  teachers; 
and  that  it  is  their  intention  to  engage  in  that  employment  in  this 
state,  which  applicants  the  said  visitors  shall  recommend  to  the  trus- 
tees as  suitable  persons,  by  their  age,  character,  talents  and  attain- 
ments, to  be  received  as  pupils  in  the  Normal  School.  The  trustees 
shall  select  by  lot,  from  the  whole  number  of  applicants  from  each 


28  AN   ACT   CONCERNING   EDUCATION. 

county,  the  proportion  of  pupils  to  which  such  county  is  entitled  by  its 
population,  of  male  and  female,  each  an  equal  number:  Provided,  that 
not  more  than  one  shall  be  admitted  from  any  school  society,  till  each 
society,  from  which  an  application  is  made,  shall  have  a  pupil  in  the 
school.  The  trustees  shall  forward  to  each  pupil,  so  appointed,  a 
certificate  of  his  appointment,  returning  also  to  the  principal  a  list  of 
pupils  appointed  to  the  school.  If  there  shall  not  be  a  sufficient 
number  of  applicants  from  any  county,  to  fill  the  number  of  appoint- 
ments allowed  to  such  county,  the  trustees  shall  fill  the  vacancy  by 
lot  from  among  the  whole  number  of  remaining  applicants.  To  all 
pupils  so  admitted  to  the  school,  the  tuition  and  all  the  privileges  of 
the  school  shall  be  gratuitous. 

SEC.  6.  The  said  trustees  are  authorized  to  make  provisions  for  a 
Model  Primary  School,  under  a  permanent  teacher  approved  by  them, 
in  which  the  pupils  of  the  Normal  School  shall  have  opportunity  to 
practice  the  modes  of  instruction  and  discipline  inculcated  in  the  Nor- 
mal School. 

SEC.  7.  For  the  support  of  said  Normal  School,  there  is  hereby  ap- 
propriated the  bonus  derived  from  the  "State  Bank,"  and  the  interest 
which  may  accrue  thereon ;  from  which  the  sum  of  twenty-five  hundred 
dollars,  annually,  for  the  term  of  four  years,  shall  be  paid  to  said 
trustees,  with  said  interest,  by  order  of  the  Comptroller,  on  the  Treas- 
urer of  the  State;  no  part  of  which  sum  shall  be  expended  in  any 
building  or  fixtures  for  said  school. 

Approved,  June  22d,  1849. 

Public  Acts,  May  session,  1849. 


EXTRACT  from  Section  1st  of  an  Act,  incorporating  the  State  Bank  at 

Hartford. 

"Provided,  That  the  President  and  Directors  of  said  bank  shall  pay 
into  the  treasury  of  this  state  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  as  a 
bonus,  which  sum  shall  be  appropriated  to  the  support  of  a  Normal 
School  in  this  state,  in  such  ways  and  at  such  place  as  shall  be  pro- 
vided by  the  Legislature." 

Resolutions  and  Private  Acts,  May  session,  1849. 


EXTRACT  from  Section  12th  of  an  Act  Incorporating  the  Deep  River 

Bank. 

"Provided,  That  before  said  bank  shall  commence  discounting  notes, 
the  Directors  of  said  bank  shall  pay  to  the  treasurer  of  this  state  the 
sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining  a  Normal 
School  in  this  state." 

Resolutions  and  Private  Acts,  May  session,  1849. 


"Resolved,  That  the  Comptroller  of  Public  Accounts  be,  and  he  here- 
by is  directed  to  draw  an  order  on  the  Treasurer  of  the  State,  payable 
to  the  trustees  of  the  State  Normal  School,  for  the  sum  of  one  thousand 
dollars,  heretofore  deposited  with  said  Treasurer,  by  the  Deep  River 
Bank,  for  the  use  of  said  School." 

Resolutions  and  Private  Acts,  May  session,  1850. 


AN  ACT  CONCERNING  EDUCATION.  29 

AN  ACT  in  alteration  of  "An  Act  concerning  Education" 

SEC.  1.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in 
General  Assembly  convened,  The  Principal  of  the  State  Normal  School, 
shall  be,  ex-officio,  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  whose  duty  it 
shall  be  to  exercise  a  general  supervision  over  the  common  schools  of 
the  state,  to  collect  information  from  school  visitors  in  the  manner 
provided  in  the  twenty-fifth  section  of  the  Act  concerning  Education, 
and  from  other  sources,  to  prepare  and  submit  an  annual  report  to  the 
General  Assembly,  containing  a  statement  of  the  condition  of  the 
common  schools  of  the  state,  plans  and  suggestions  for  the  improve- 
ment and  better  organization  of  the  common  school  system,  and  all 
such  matters  relating  to  his  office  and  to  the  interests  of  education  as 
he  shall  deem  expedient  to  communicate. 

SEC  2.  That  the  Superintendent  appointed  by  virtue  hereof  be,  and 
he  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to  hold  at  one  convenient  place 
in  each  county  of  the  state,  in  the  months  of  September,  October  or 
November  annually,  schools  or  conventions  of  teachers,  for  the  purpose 
of  instructing  in  the  best  modes  of  governing  and  teaching  our  common 
schools,  and  to  employ  one  suitable  person  to  assist  him  at  each  of 
said  schools. 

SEC.  3.  That  the  compensation  of  the  Superintendent  shall  be  three 
dollars  per  day,  in  full  for  his  services  while  actually  employed  in 
performing  the  duties  required  of  him  by  law,  and  shall  be  allowed 
his  necessary  disbursements  for  traveling  expenses,  stationery,  print- 
ing and  clerk-hire,  in  the  business  of  said  office.  And  the  person  or 
persons  by  him  employed  in  assisting  at  said  school,  shall  be  allowed 
not  exceeding  three  dollars  per  day  for  the  time  occupied  in  traveling 
to  and  from,  and  attending  said  school  conventions;  which  compensa- 
tion and  disbursements  shall  be  paid  from  the  civil  list  funds  of  the 
state,  after  being  taxed  and  allowed  by  the  Comptroller,  who  shall 
draw  an  order  on  the  State  Treasurer  therefor. 

SEC.  4.  That  the  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools  be,  and  he  Is 
hereby  directed  to  give  seasonable  notice  to  each  school  society  of  the 
times  and  places  of  holding  said  schools  or  conventions,  and  such  other 
notice  to  the  teachers  as  he  may  deem  expedient. 

SEC.  5.  That  so  much  of  the  tenth  section  of  the  Act  concerning 
Education  as  constitutes  the  Commissioner  of  the  School  Fund,  ex- 
officio,  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  and  the  resolve,  passed  in 
1848,  providing  for  employing  persons  to  hold  schools  of  teachers, 
and  for  holding  the  same,  be,  and  the  same  are  hereby  repealed. 
Provided,  that  the  Commissioner  of  the  School  Fund  shall,  ex-officio, 
remain  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  exercising  all  the  powers 
heretofore  conferred  on  him,  until  the  Principal  of  the  State  Normal 
School  shall  be  appointed,  and  enter  on  the  duties  of  said  appointment. 

Approved,  June  22d,  1849. 

Public  Acts,  May  session,  1849. 


FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT 

OF  THE  TRUSTEES  OF  THE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  OF 
CONNECTICUT. 

SUBMITTED  MAY  15TH,   1850. 


To  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Connecticut: 

THE  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  State  Normal  School,  in  conformity  to 
a  requisition  of  the  act  for  the  establishment  of  the  same,  respectfully 
present  their  first  Annual  Report. 

The  Board,  at  its  first  meeting,  on  the  7th  of  August,  after  duly  or- 
ganizing, resolved  to  issue  a  public  notice,  inviting  proposals  for  the 
location  of  the  school,  either  permanent,  or  otherwise,  as  the  act  pro- 
vides. To  this  invitation  but  one  town  made  a  prompt  response,  and 
for  a  time  the  projected  institution  seemed  in  danger  of  prospective 
defeat,  from  public  apathy  and  indifference.  After  the  lapse  of  some 
two  or  three  months,  the  cause  of  this  alarming  silence  was  under- 
stood to  proceed  from  the  general  impression  which  had  gone  abroad, 
that  the  institution  was  to  be  of  a  migratory  nature,  and  pass  from 
place  to  place,  without  remaining  long  enough  anywhere,  to  gain  a 
residence,  and  make  its  acquisition  desirable.  No  adequate  inducement 
was  offered  to  the  people  of  any  locality  in  the  state,  to  make  the 
necessary  outlay,  and  offer  the  proposals  solicited. 

To  obviate  this  embarrassment,  and  induce  the  requisite  proposals, 
the  Board,  at  a  subsequent  meeting,  in  the  exercise  of  the  discretionary 
power  vested  in  it,  resolved,  that,  wherever  located,  the  institution 
should  be  permanently  established  during  four  years,  at  least,  the  pe- 
riod contemplated  by  the  act.  Soon  after  it  was  understood  that  such 
action  had  been  taken  by  the  Board,  the  cloud  of  uncertainty  which 
had  hung  over  the  fate  of  the  projected  institution,  disappeared,  and 
liberal  offers  were  made  by  several  towns  in  the  central  part  of  the 
state,  which  will  be  further  noticed  in  the  sequel  of  this  report. 

Another  question  of  great  moment,  deeply  involving  the  welfare  of 
the  institution,  claimed  and  received  the  early  attention  of  the  Board, 
viz.  who  shall  be  its  Principal?  On  the  decision  of  this  question,  the 
Board  felt  that  very  much  of  the  character  and  usefulness  of  the 
institution  was  depending;  and  it  received  that  careful  attention  and 
anxious  deliberation,  which  its  importance  seemed  to  demand.  After 
consultation  with  the  friends  of  the  enterprise,  in  different  parts  of 
the  state,  and  thoroughly  canvassing  the  merits  of  several  condidates, 
whose  names  had  been  presented,  the  Board  came,  unanimously,  to 
the  choice  of  the  Hon.  Henry  Barnard,  a  gentleman  well  known  in  this 
state,  by  his  former  labors  in  the  cause  of  popular  education,  as 
Secretary  of  the  late  Board  of  Education,  and  more  recently  Commis- 
sioner of  Common  Schools  in  the  state  of  Rhode  Island.  His  dis- 
tinguished ability  and  zeal  in  the  cause,  coupled  with  his  entire  self- 
consecration,  and  large  experience,  constitute  the  surest  guaranty  of 
the  successful  discharge  of  the  duties  of  the  appointment,  and  that  no 
effort  will  be  lacking  on  his  part,  to  give  to  the  institution  efficiency 
and  utility.  From  the  time  when  this  appointment  was  conferred  on 
Mr.  Barnard,  he  has  co-operated  with  the  Board  of  which  he  is, 
ex  officio,  a  member,  in  the  preparatory  labors  of  locating  the  school, 
and  putting  it  in  operation. 


32  FIRST   ANNUAL    REPORT    OF    THE    TRUSTEES 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the  Board  on  the  15th  of  January, 
proposals  for  the  location  of  the  school  had  been  received  from  the 
city  of  Middleton,  and  from  the  villages  of  Farmington,  New  Britain, 
and  Southington.  A  Committee  on  Location  was,  thereupon,  appointed, 
to  visit  each  of  these  localities,  and  ascertain,  from  personal  observa- 
tion and  inquiry,  their  comparative  advantages.  A  full  hearing  was, 
subsequently,  given  to  the  several  applicants,  in  vindication  of  their 
respective  claims  to  the  location  of  the  institution,  and  the  spirit  of 
competition  elicited  on  the  occasion  was  truly  gratifying,  inasmuch  as 
it  evinced  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  institution,  on  the  part  of  those, 
at  least,  who  were  so  laudably  zealous  for  its  acquisition.  Of  all  the 
several  offers  thus  made  to  the  state,  it  may  justly  be  said,  that  they 
were  liberal,  and  highly  creditable  to  the  parties  by  whom  they  were 
presented.  No  one  of  them  was  so  clearly  superior  to  the  others,  as 
to  preclude  all  doubt  relative  to  their  comparative  eligibility.  But 
lest,  after  all,  there  should  be  some  misunderstanding  between  the 
parties  and  the  Board,  the  following  propositions  were  adopted  by  the 
latter,  as  the  conditions  on  which  the  school  should  be  established: 

"The  Trustees  will  expect  a  building,  or  buildings,  to  be  provided, 
sufficiently  large  to  accommodate  220  pupils,  with  suitable  rooms  for 
recitations  and  lectures,  furnished  with  the  necessary  fixtures,  and  on 
a  site  acceptable  to  the  Trustees.  The  plans  and  specifications  thereof 
shall  be  furnished  by  the  Principal  of  the  School,  and  the  building  or 
buildings  shall  be  acceptable  to  the  Trustees.  They  will  also  expect 
such  an  apparatus  to  be  furnished,  as  will  be  needed  by  the  school,  to 
the  value  of  not  less  than  one  thousand  dollars:  and  a  library  of  books, 
chiefly  on  education,  to  the  value  of  not  less  than  five  hundred  dollars. 
They  will  also  require  one  school  to  be  placed  at  their  disposal,  as  a 
Model  School,  the  teacher  of  which  shall  be  approved  by  the  Trustees, 
but  paid  by  the  District.  And,  finally,  while  the  Trustees  will  do  all 
in  their  power  to  make  the  institution  of  such  a  character  as  shall 
reflect  honor  on  the  state,  and  be  calculated  to  insure  its  perpetuity, 
yet,  they  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood,  that  they  can  not,  in  any 
way,  bind  the  state  to  continue  the  school  for  a  longer  period  than 
four  years,  from  April  1st,  1850;  and  they  can  not  accept  of  any  pro- 
posals which  shall  imply,  directly,  or  indirectly,  any  obligation,  on  the 
part  of  the  state,  to  make  any  reimbursement,  at  the  end  of  four  years, 
if  the  school  should  be  discontinued  at  that  time. 

To  the  conditions  thus  set  forth,  the  people  of  New  Britain  promptly 
and  fully  acceded,  and  raised,  by  private  subscription,  the  sum  of  six- 
teen thousand  dollars;  four  thousand  of  which  they  propose  to  expend 
on  their  own  schools  of  practice,  to  be  connected  with  the  Normal 
School,  and  the  residue  of  twelve  thousand  dollars,  they  offer  to  the 
state  for  the  purposes  above  specified.  On  the  subsequent  organization 
of  the  subscribers  into  a  Joint  Stock  Company,  they  fixed  the  amount 
of  their  stock  at  twenty  thousand  dollars." 

While  the  Normal  School  edifice  is  in  process  of  building,  the  present 
season,  the  Company  have  furnished  and  fitted  up,  for  the  temporary 
accommodation  of  the  state,  a  spacious  and  commodious  room  in  a 
public  building,  located  near  the  center  of  the  village,  in  which  the 
Board  is  pleased  to  be  able  to  announce  the  opening  of  the  State 
Normal  School,  this  day,  (May  15th,)  with  thirty  pupils  in  attendance, 
under  the  immediate  supervision  and  instruction  of  Mr.  T.  D.  P.  Stone, 
as  Associate  Principal,  a  native  citizen  of  this  state,  but  for  many 
years  a  highly  successful  teacher  in  the  states  of  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampshire,  and  for  the  last  year  the  teacher  of  the  Massachusetts 
State  Reform  School,  located  at  Westborough.  It  may  be  proper  to 


OF   THE    NORMAL    SCHOOL.  33 

add,  that  Mr.  Stone  presented  to  the  Board  the  most  satisfactory  cre- 
dentials of  excellence  of  character,  and  accomplishments  as  a  teacher; 
and  no  doubt  is  entertained,  but  that  he  will  magnify  the  office  thus 
confidently  conferred  upon  him,  and  so  far,  at  least,  as  he  is  con- 
cerned, enable  the  friends  of  the  institution  to  realize  the  fulfilment 
of  their  most  sanguine  hopes. 

Superadded  to  the  commendable  liberality  thus  exhibited  by  the 
people  of  New  Britain,  the  Board  was  particularly  gratified  by  the 
spirit  of  unanimity  and  cordiality  which  accompanied  and  crowned 
their  donation;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt,  from  the  interest  and 
enthusiasm  already  manifested  on  their  part,  that  they  will  continue 
to  foster  and  encourage  an  institution  which  they  so  highly  and  so 
justly  appreciate,  and  which  is  so  closely  identified  with  the  prosperity 
and  reputation  of  their  goodly  village.  The  nascent  germ,  which  they 
have  so  sedulously  procured,  and  generously  planted  in  their  midst, 
will  long  receive  their  fostering  care,  and  loving  kindness,  and,  rising 
in  growth  and  grandeur,  is  destined  to  become,  not  only  the  crowning 
ornament  of  the  beautiful  village  in  which  it  flourishes,  but  the 
ornament  of  the  entire  state. 

The  Board  take  this  occasion  to  inform  the  Legislature,  that  the 
bonus  of  the  Deep  River  Bank,  which,  by  the  condition  of  its  charter, 
was  to  be  applied  for  the  benefit  of  the  State  Normal  School,  has  been 
appropriated  and  deposited  for  this  object;  but  no  authority  having 
been  given  to  the  Trustees,  by  the  last  Legislature,  to  receive  the  same, 
they  would  suggest  that  this  inadvertency  be  remedied,  by  the  passage 
of  a  resolution,  authorizing  the  Board  to  receive  the  deposit,  that  it 
may  be  applied  to  its  legitimate  object. 

The  Trustees  would  moreover  inform  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
occurrence  of  four  vacancies  in  their  Board,  two  of  which  arise  from 
the  expiration  of  the  shortest  term  of  service  prescribed  by  the  act 
instituting  the  same;  one  for  Fairfield,  and  the  other  for  New  London 
County;  the  third,  owing  to  the  decease,  in  the  early  part  of  the  year, 
of  our  lamented  associate,  Francis  Bacon,  Esq.,  occurs  for  Litchfield 
County;  and  the  fourth  has  been  made  by  the  resignation  of  the  Rev. 
J.  D.  Baldwin,  he  having  removed  from  the  county  of  Windham,  for 
which  he  was  appointed;  all  of  which  the  Legislature  will  please  to 
fill  by  the  appointment  of  men  who,  in  addition  to  their  other  quali- 
fications, shall  be  especially  pre-eminent  for  that  high  degree  of 
patriotism,  and  devotion  to  the  Republic,  which  shall  secure  their 
services  to  the  state,  icithout  compensation,  agreeably  to  Section  3d  of 
the  act,  which  so  plentifully  provides,  that  the  Trustees  of  the  State 
Normal  School  "shall  receive  no  compensation  for  their  services." 

In  conclusion,  the  Board  would  take  occasion  to  express  the  sincere 
gratification  which  they  derive  from  the  auspicious  indications  which 
attend  the  infancy  of  the  institution  committed  to  their  charge;  and 
with  the  harmonious  and  zealous  co-operation  of  all  concerned  in  its 
prosperity,  they  confidently  anticipate  for  it  a  career  of  great  useful- 
ness and  beneficence,  in  imparting  increased  efficiency  to  our  system 
of  public  instruction,  and  in  multiplying,  augmenting,  and  diffusing 
the  blessings  of  popular  education.  In  behalf  of  the  Board, 

FRANCIS  GILLETTE,  Chairman. 
New  Britain,  May  15th,  1850. 


EXTRACT 

FROM  THE 

Fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Superintendent   (Henry  Barnard)   of  the 

Common  Schools  of  Connecticut  to  the  General  Assembly, 

May  session,  1850. 

AFTER  the  lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  the  attention  of  the 
people  of  Connecticut  was  first  called  to  the  importance  of  providing 
for  the  special  preparation  of  teachers  of  common  schools  for  their 
arduous  and  responsible  labors,  the  Legislature  in  1849  appropriated 
the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  paid  by  the  State  Bank,  and  of  one 
thousand  dollars  paid  by  the  Deep  River  Bank,  as  a  bonus  for  their 
respective  charters,  to  meet  the  annual  expenses  of  a  State  Normal 
School,  or  Teachers'  Seminary,  for  a  period  of  four  years.  Apart  from 
my  official  connection  with  the  institution,  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  as 
Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  to  do  every  thing  in  my  power, 
not  only  to  make  its  objects  known,  but  to  facilitate  its  early  organiza- 
tion and  opening,  as  the  most  important  agency  which  could  be  em- 
ployed by  the  state  to  increase  the  usefulness  of  the  common  schools, 
both  as  to  the  quality  and  amount  of  education  given.  So  anxious 
were  the  trustees  and  officers  of  the  institution  to  make  a  beginning 
of  their  enterprise,  that  without  waiting  for  the  complete  outfit  of 
buildings,  apparatus  and  library,  which  the  people  of  New  Britain  had 
pledged  themselves  to  furnish  on  the  location  of  the  Normal  School  in 
that  village,  the  school  was  opened  on  the  15th  of  the  present  month, 
(May,)  under  as  favorable  auspices,  as  to  pupils  and  opportunities  for 
imparting  practical  knowledge,  as  any  of  the  seven  Normal  Schools 
which  are  now  in  successful  operation  on  this  continent.  At  the  close 
of  the  first  week,  there  were  thirty-five  Normal  pupils  in  attendance, 
under  the  immediate  instruction  of  Rev.  T.  D.  P.  Stone,  the  Associate 
Principal  of  the  School,  and  upward  of  three  hundred  pupils  from  the 
village,  in  four  Schools  of  Practice,  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  Stone, 
assisted  by  Prof.  Guion,  three  female  teachers  and  pupils  of  the  Normal 
School.  The  four  Schools  of  Practice  are  supported  by  the  Central 
District  of  the  New  Britain  School  Society. 

In  the  absence  of  any  published  rules  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
regulating  permanently  the  number  of  sessions  in  the  year,  and  the 
length  of  each  session,  the  subject  and  course  of  instruction,  the  period 
of  attendance  or  degree  of  proficiency  to  entitle  a  pupil  to  the  diploma 
of  the  institution,  I  will  venture  to  set  forth  the  general  plans  and 
aims  of  the  officers  who  have  been  entrusted  with  the  immediate  care 
of  the  institution,  for  the  purpose  of  making  known  its  objects,  and 
showing  its  probable  influence  on  our  common  schools. 

1.  The  officers  of  the  Normal  School  believe  that  they  could  best 
promote  the  permanent  improvement  of  the  common  schools  of  the 
state,  by  truly  educating,  and  thoroughly  training  a  few  efficient 
teachers  of  the  right  stamp  of  character,  physical,  intellectual,  estheti- 
cal  and  moral,  and  then  securing  their  permanent  employment  at  fair 
remunerating  wages,  at  central  points  in  different  sections  of  the  state, 
as  Normal  teachers  in  model  school-houses*  or,  by  being  allowed  to 
select  every  year  out  of  such  candidates  as  may  be  presented  by  the 
visitors  for  the  several  school  societies,  a  small  number  of  pupils  who 
possess  the  health,  gentleness  of  manners,  fondness  for  children,  purity 
of  character,  singleness  of  purpose  and  tact,  that  indicate  a  natural 
fitness  for  teaching,  and  then,  retain  them  long  enough  to  superadd 


36  MB.  BARNARD'S  REPORT. 

such  appropriate  knowledge  of  the  studies  to  be  taught,  and  practical 
skill  in  arranging  the  classes  and  conducting  the  instruction  and 
discipline  of  an  elementary  school,  under  the  ordinary  conditions  of 
an  agricultural  district.  But  as  either  of  these  courses  are  impractic- 
able under  present  circumstances,  they  will  aim  to  benefit  in  such 
measure  as  they  can,  as  many  pupils  as  may  apply  for  admission;  to 
co-operate  every  year  in  such  ways  as  shall  be  open  to  them,  with  as 
many  teachers  of  the  state  as  they  can  meet  for  professional  improve- 
ment, whether  the  same  shall  be  pupils  of  the  school  or  not;  to  act  by 
personal  visits  to  the  schools,  and  by  public  addresses,  on  as  many 
societies  and  districts  as  their  engagements  at  the  Normal  School  will 
admit;  and  to  prepare  the  public  mind  of  the  state  generally,  by  pre- 
cept and  example,  by  voice  and  pen,  as  far  and  fast  as  they  can,  for 
more  thorough  and  progressive  steps  of  improvement  in  every  depart- 
ment of  the  educational  field. 

2.  The  benefit  of  the  Normal  School  to  any  pupil  will  be  measured 
by   the   preparation   each   may   bring   in   character,    attainments   and 
aptitude  for  the  business,  and  the  time  and  industry  which  may  be 
devoted  to  the  work.    The  officers  of  the  school  cannot  encourage  for 
a  moment,  the  idea  that  a  person  who  does  not  understand  a  subject 
thoroughly,  can  ever  teach  that  subject  well,  or  that  a  residence  of  a 
few  weeks  or  months  in  the  institution,  however  diligently  and  wisely 
employed,  will  be  sufficient  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  human  mind, 
and  of  a  child's  mind  in  particular;   of  the  studies  which  it  is  de- 
sirable to  have  well  taught  in  our  common  schools,  and  of  the  best 
methods  of  teaching  the  same;  of  the  motives  which  are  to  be  appealed 
to  to  secure  habits  of  study,  order  and  obedience;  and  of  all  the  tech- 
nical and  practical  details  of  school  keeping.     They  believe,  however, 
that  a  person  of  quick  observation,  of  some  natural  aptitude  for  the 
business,  and  a  clear  intellect  of  the  average  power  and  cultivation, 
can,   with   ordinary   diligence   and   devotion,   obtain   much   additional 
information,  and  some  practical  experience,  correct  many  old  errors 
and  appropriate  many  valuable  hints,  and  above  all  catch   the  true 
professional  spirit,  by  even  one  term's  residence  at  the  school.    A  single 
visit  to  a  good  school;  an  hour's  conversation  with  a  good  teacher;  the 
reading  of  a  single  chapter  in  Emerson's  "Schoolmaster,"  or  Page's 
"Theory  and  Practice  of  Teaching,"  may  be  not  only  a  help,  but  the 
starting  point  of  a  new  life  to  the  young  teacher.     The  officers  of  the 
Normal  School  will,  therefore,  welcome  any  teacher  or  candidate  for 
teaching,  to  the  institution  under  their  charge,  for  a  visit  of  an  hour 
or  a  residence  of  years. 

3.  By  means  of  the  regular  classes  in  tlie  Normal  School  and  in  the 
Schools  of  Practice,  an  opportunity  will  be  offered  to  every  member  of 
the   school   to  review  thoroughly  any  one   or   all   of   the   elementary 
studies  required  to  be  taught  in  the  common  schools  of  the  state,  and 
to  extend  his  attainments  in  any  of  these  studies,  and  such  kindred 
branches  as  will  facilitate  his  success  as  a  teacher  in  any  grade  of 
common  schools. 

The  reviews  and  recitations  will  be  so  conducted,  as  to  methods  and 
practical  illustrations,  as  to  make  the  studies  far  more  interesting  and 
profitable  than  they  now  are,  whether  regarded  in  the  way  of  informa- 
tion, or  as  means  of  intellectual  discipline,  preparatory  to  those  labors 
and  duties  of  life  which  are  most  important  and  universal.  A  knowl- 
edge of  the  elements  and  structure  of  the  English  language,  is  justly 
deemed  of  paramount  importance,  and  it  is  proposed  so  to  teach  it,  as 
to  give  to  every  child  who  shall  attend  a  common  school  with  ordinary 
regularity  and  diligence,  not  only  the  ability  to  spell  and  read  with 
accuracy  and  facility,  but  to  converse  and  compose  in  it  with  a  good 


MR.   BABNABD'8    BEPOKT.  37 

degree  of  readiness  and  power,  and  at  the  same  time  acquire  an  earnest 
and  discriminating  taste  for  the  choicest  productions  of  American  and 
English  literature.  Penmanship  is  now  taught  in  every  district  school, 
and  it  is  proposed  to  connect  the  exercises  in  this  branch  not  only  with 
constant  practice  in  English  composition,  with  book-keeping  and  other 
forms  of  business,  but  also  with  the  art  of  drawing,  thus  educating  to 
a  higher  degree  than  mere  writing  can  do,  both  the  eye  and  the  hand, 
rendering  the  one  observant,  and  the  other  exact,  and  at  the  same  time, 
training  several  important  faculties  of  the  mind,  and  imparting  a 
power  which  can  be  turned  to  many  useful  purposes  in  every  depart- 
ment of  practical  life. 

In  addition  to  the  studies  now  generally  taught  in  our  schools,  it  is 
proposed  to  give  some  practical  instruction  in  vocal  music  and  physi- 
ology; and  to  those,  whose  previous  training,  or  whose  residence  at 
the  institution  will  be  long  enough  to  allow  of  this  extension  of  the 
course  without  abridging  the  time  and  attention  which  are  due  to  the 
elementary  studies,  a  general  view  of  the  principles  of  agricultural 
chemistry  and  domestic  economy,  will  be  presented. 

4.  Subjects  will  be  taught  in  the  Normal  School  rather  than  text 
books;  and  the  manner  in  which  the  same  subject  is  treated  by  several 
of  the  best  authors,  will  be  compared  and  discussed,  in  order  that  the 
graduates  may  be  prepared  to  decide  on  the  comparative  merits  of 
school  books,  whenever  a  change  of  text  books  is  desirable  in  a  school, 
and  at  the  same  time  be  able  to  teach  the  subjects  properly,  even  if 
pupils  of  the  same  class  should  study  the  subject  in  different  books. 

5.  The  elementary  studies  will  be  thoroughly  reviewed  with  constant 
practice  on  the  blackboard,  and  by  the  aid  of  such  maps,  and  cheap 
and  simple  apparatus  as  are  now  furnished  in  our  best  class  of  common 
schools,  and  are  indispensable  in  all  schools,  not  only  that  these  studies 
may  be  more  vividly  apprehended,  but  that  the  teachers  may  be  pre- 
pared to  use  means  of  practical  and  visible  illustration  whenever  the 
same  shall  be  furnished.     For  the  want  of  knowledge  of  many  useful 
applications  of  the  blackboard  in  all  of  the  elementary  studies,  even 
the  blackboard  is  but  little  used  at  the  present  time  by  the  teachers 
of  our  district  schools. 

6.  In  addition  to  familiar  and  practical  suggestions  on  particular 
points  in  the  organization,  instruction  and  discipline  of  schools,  as 
occasion  may  call  for  the  same  in  the  daily  routine  of  the  institution, 
lectures  will  be  given"  on  the  history  of  education  and  schools;  on  the 
object  and  principles  of  public  instruction  in  general,  and  of  our  own 
system  in  particular;  on  the  art  of  teaching  and  its  methods,  and  the 
application  of  these  methods  to  each  particular  study;   on  the  theory 
of  discipline  and  its  practice;  on  the  peculiarities  of  a  district  school, 
as  well  as  of  other  grades  of  schools;    on  the  general  principles  of 
school  architecture;   on  the  legal  position  and  relations  of  a  teacher 
in  our  system  of  common  schools;  and  a  variety  of  other  topics  which 
need  not  be  enumerated  in  this  place.     [Topics  for  Discussion.} 

These  topics  will  be  examined  by  the  pupils  in  the  light  of  their  own 
previous  experience  and  observation,  will  be  tested  by  contrast  and 
comparison  with  the  matter  and  manner  of  instruction  and  discipline 
in  the  institution,  and  its  associated  schools  of  practice,  will  be  further 
investigated  in  the  books  on  the  history  of  education  and  schools,  and 
the  theory  and  practice  of  teaching  in  the  library,  and  will  be  made 
the  themes  of  oral  discussion  and  written  essays  which  will  constitute 
a  part  of  the  regular  routine  of  the  Normal  School. 

7.  The  various  principles  which  come  under  the  general  department 
of  the  theory  and  practice  of  teaching,  will  not  only  be  exemplified  as 


130033 


38  MB.  BARNARD'S  REPORT. 

far  as  practicable  in  the  management,  instruction  and  discipline  of 
the  Normal  Schools  and  the  Schools  of  Practice,  but  an  opportunity 
will  be  afforded  to  the  pupils  of  the  first,  to  apply  the  same  in  practice 
to  such  extent  and  in  such  manner  as  the  previous  education  of  each 
shall  render  expedient  and  desirable.  To  give  the  most  thorough 
familiarity  with  the  theory  and  practice  of  organizing  and  conducting 
common  schools,  and  at  the  same  time  to  enable  a  few  at  least  of 
each  class  to  continue  their  connection  with  the  school,  a  certain 
number  will  be  employed  as  assistant  teachers  in  the  schools  of  the 
village,  and,  as  far  as  practicable,  of  the  neighboring  districts.  Oppor- 
tunity will  be  given  to  such  pupils  to  spend  a  portion  of  the  vacations 
in  visiting  the  best  schools  in  different  parts  of  the  state,  and  in 
attending  educational  meetings  of  various  kinds  which  may  be  appoint- 
ed by  the  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools.  The  pupils  thus  em- 
ployed will  embody  in  written  reports  the  results  of  their  observation 
and  experience,  which  will  be  subject  to  the  examination  and  criticism 
of  the  officers  of  the  institution. 

8.  To  cultivate  a  truly  religious  feeling,  to  lay  the  foundation  and 
implant  the  motives  for  a  truly  religious  life,  to  enable  the  teachers 
by  precept  and  example  rightly  to  develop  the  moral  faculties,  and  to 
define  and  enforce  the  performance  of  all  the  great  primary  moral 
duties,  in  the  schools  which  may  be  placed  under  their  charge,  will  be 
one   of   the  cardinal   objects   of   the   Normal   School.     Every  suitable 
effort,  consistent  with  perfect  religious  toleration,  will  be  made,   to 
give  a  deep  moral  and  religious  tone  to  all  the  exercises,  and  to  the 
whole   character   of   the   institution,   from   a   deep   conviction   that   a 
sense  of  responsibility  to  God,  and   of  love  to  man,  must  form  the 
main-spring  of  a  teacher's  activity,  while  it  is  the  surest  pledge  of 
success. 

9.  Occasional   lectures   on    important   topics   of   education,   or    even 
courses  of  lectures  on  subjects  of  intrinsic  value,  and  which  reflect 
light  on  the  studies,  labors  and  duties  of  the  teacher's  calling,  will  be 
secured   from   time   to   time   from   persons  who   have   given   to   these 
subjects  special  preparation.     In  this  way  it  is  anticipated  that  the 
pupils  will  have  the  benefit  of  the  counsel,  experience  and  study  of 
many  wise  and  distinguished  teachers  and  educators  from  this  and 
other  states. 

10.  No  efforts  will  be  spared,  by  correspondence  and  personal  ap- 
plication, to  assist  the  Normal  pupils  in  obtaining  permanent  situations 
as  teachers,  according  to  the  qualifications  of  each,  and  to  promote 
their  advancement  from  a  school  of  a  lower  grade  and  compensation, 
to  one  of  a  more  desirable  character  in  both  respects.    Any  aid  which 
can  be  given  to  the  graduates  of  the  school  by  advice  and  cooperation, 
in  their  several  fields  of  labor,  will  be  cheerfully  extended.    An  oppor- 
tunity will  be  afforded  to  such  as  may  wish  to  return  to  the  institution 
for  a  short  period  to  perfect  or  practice  themselves  in  particular  de- 
partments of  instruction,  in  which  on  trial  they  may  find  themselves 
deficient.    An  anniversary  meeting,  or  reunion  of  all  the  members  of 
the  school,  will  be  encouraged  at  least  once   in  a  year.     The  State 
Teachers'  Association  will   be   invited   to   hold   at  least   one  meeting 
every  year  within  the  walls  of  the  institution,  where  every  facility 
at  the  command  of  its  officers  will  be  extended  to  make  the  teachers 
of  the   state   welcome,   and   their   session   profitable   and    interesting. 
Every  thing  will  be  done  by  the  officers  of  the  school,  which  a  strong 
desire  can   suggest,  and   unwearied   efforts  accomplish,   to   make   the 
school  worthy  of  the  kind  feeling  and  prompt  cooperation  of  all  who 
are,  and  of  all  who  propose  to  become  teachers  in  any  grade  of  public 


MB.  BARNARD'S  REPORT.  39 

or  private  schools  in  the  state,  to  grapple  as  with  bands  of  steel,  and 
yet  only  by  the  sympathy  of  a  common  pursuit  and  the  sense  of 
reciprocal  benefit,  the  pupils  to  the  school,  and  the  teachers  of  the 
state  to  each  other,  and  to  unite  all  hearts  and  all  hands  in  the  great 
work  of  the  more  complete,  practical  and  universal  education  of  the 
children  of  Connecticut. 

11.  To  make  the  objects  of  the  Normal  School  generally  known,  to 
interest  young  persons  of  the  right  character  and  views  in  the  business 
of  teaching,  and  induce  them  to  connect  themselves  with  the  institu- 
tion for  a  sufficient  length  of  time  to  obtain  the  full  benefits  of  a 
methodical  course  of  theoretical  and  practical  instruction,  to  cooperate 
with  such  pupils  as  may  go  out  from  the  Normal  School  to  teach  in 
different  parts  of  the  state,  to  visit  schools  of  different  grades  in 
large  and  small,  in  village  and  country  districts,  for  the  purpose  of 
ascertaining  their  condition,  suggesting  improvements,  and  adapting 
the  instruction  of  the  Normal  School  to  the  real  deficiencies  of  ele- 
mentary education,  to  establish  pleasant  social  and  professional  rela- 
tions with  teachers,  school  officers  and  parents,  it  is  the  intention  of 
the  officers  of  the  institution  to  attend  Institutes,  Teachers'  Associ- 
ations, and  common  school  meetings  of  every  name,  to  which  they  may 
be  invited,  or  where  they  have  reason  to  suppose  their  presence  and 
cooperation  will  prove  acceptable.  It  is  believed,  that  in  the  course 
of  the  four  years  for  which  the  enterprise  is  now  planned,  every  school 
society,  and  a  large  majority  of  the  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty  districts, 
will  be  visited  by  one  or  more  of  the  teachers  of  the  Normal  School. 

This  department  of  labor  is  as  necessary  to  the  success  of  the  enter- 
prise as  the  instructions  which  may  be  given  within  the  walls  of  the 
Normal  School. 

Among  the  results  which  will  follow  from  the  successful  manage- 
ment of  the  State  Normal  School  for  a  period  of  four  years,  now 
provided  for  by  law,  may  be  specified  the  following. 

1.  It  will  make  an  institution  or  institutions  of  this  character,  in 
some  form,  an   indispensable  feature  of  our  common  school   system. 
This  has  been  the  uniform  result  in  every  country  and  every  state 
where  the  experiment  has  been  tried  under  favorable  auspices.     There 
is  not  on  record  a  single  instance  of  the  abandonment  of  this  agency 
for  providing  good  teachers  for  public  schools,  whenever  it  has  been 
tried  under  liberal  legislative  or  governmental  patronage.     There  are 
more  than  two  hundred  such  schools  now  in  successful  operation  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  every  year  is  adding  to  the  number. 

2.  It  will  thus  supply  the  want  which  has  long  been  known  to  exist 
by  those  who  have  given  most  attention  to  the  improvement  of  com- 
mon schools,  of  a  place  where  young  men  and  young  women  of  the 
requisite  natural  qualifications,  can  acquire  the  science  and  the  art  of 
teaching  without  a  series  of  experiments  which  are  annually  made  at 
the   expense  of  the  health,   faculties,   and   affections   of   the   children 
placed  under  their  charge.    It  will  do  for  the  future  teacher  what  the 
direction  of  the  master  workman  and  the  usual  term  and  duties  of 
apprenticeship  do  for  the  future  mechanic;  what  the  law  school,  and 
clerkship  in  the  office  of  an  older  practitioner  at  the  bar,  do  for  the 
young  lawyer;   what  the  medical  school,  the  practice  in  the  hospital, 
or  dissecting  room,  or  study  in  the  office  of  the  experienced  physician, 
do  for  the  medical  student.    It  is  applying  to  the  business  of  teaching 
the  same  preparatory  study  and  practice  which  the  common  judgment 
of  the  world^demands  of  every  other  profession  and  art.     In  this  case 
it  is  provided  for  by  the  state,  because  the  state  has  found  it  to  be  a 
matter    of    interest    and    duty; — of    right    in    its    strongest    and    best 


40  MB.  BARNARD'S  REPORT. 

sense; — to  look  after  the  education  of  children,  and  to  contribute 
toward  the  wages  of  the  teacher;  and  to  protect  her  own  appropriations 
she  should  see  that  the  teachers  are  properly  qualified. 

3.  It  will  help   to  make   teaching  a  permanent   employment.     The 
more  truly  efficient  a  teacher  becomes,  the  more  thoroughly  the  habits 
of  his  mind  and  life  are  moulded  to  his  occupation,  the  more  deeply 
his  soul  is  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  his  profession,  the  less  likely  he 
is,  and  the  less  capable  he  becomes  of  changing  his  career,  and  the 
more  he  is  fortified  against  the  temptations  to  forsake  it;    and  the 
example  and  success  of  one  such  teacher  will  have  a  powerful  influence 
in  determining  the  choice  of  many  others  just  starting  in  the  pro- 
fession. 

4.  It  will  help  to  verify  the  vocation  of  the  pupils  to  the  profession 
for  which   they  are  preparing.     The  Normal   School  will   be  a  very 
uncomfortable  place  for  any  person  whose  heart  is  not  in  the  work, 
and  who  looks  upon  teaching,  not  as  a  calling,  a  mission,  but  as  a 
meaningless  routine,  a  daily  task,  imposed  by  necessity,  or  taken  up 
because  nothing  better  offered,  and  to  be  thrown  aside  as  soon  as  a 
more  lucrative  occupation  shall  turn   up,   or  open.     It  will   be  soon 
ascertained  who  enters  upon  the  prescribed  round  of  observation  and 
practice,  of  reading  and  discussion,  of  study  and  lectures,  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  persons  in  earnest  and  in  love  with  their  business;  and 
only  such  will  be  encouraged  to  persevere,  or  will  be  recommended  as 
teachers  on  leaving  the  school. 

6.  While  it  is  probable  that  much  the  largest  number  of  teachers 
who  become  connected  with  the  school  will  not  remain  long  enough  to 
experience  the  full  benefit  of  what  is  understood  to  be  a  course  of 
Normal  instruction  and  training,  still  it  is  believed  a  small  number  at 
least  will,  and  the  good  which  a  few  teachers  properly  trained  will  do, 
will  not  be  confined  to  the  districts  in  which  they  are  employed. 
Their  schools  will  become  model  schools  for  other  districts,  and  the 
awakening  influence  of  their  example  and  labors  will  be  felt  all  around 
them.  Teachers  who  have  not  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  such  training, 
will  strive  to  excel  those  who  have,  and  thus  a  wholesome  spirit  of 
emulation  will  spring  up  among  the  teachers  of  the  same  neighbor- 
hood. 

6.  Through  the  direct  and  necessary  influence  of  even  a  few  good 
schools  scattered  all  over  the  state;  of  schools  made  good,  and  seen 
and  felt  and  acknowledged  to  be  made  good,  by  teachers  who  have 
gone  out  from  this  institution  with  improved  and  improving  views  of 
the  nature,  objects  and  methods  of  teaching,  and  by  the  many  other 
modes  in  which  the  officers  and  pupils  of  this  school  propose  to  act 
on  the  public  mind,  the  standard  of  teachers'  qualifications  and  wages 
will  be  gradually  and  permanently  raised.  Good  teachers  will  be  in 
demand,  and  their  services  will  command  good  wages.  The  contrast 
between  a  good  teacher,  and  a  poor  one,  will  be  seen  and  felt;  and 
then  the  great  commercial  law  of  demand  and  supply  will  begin  to 
operate.  The  want  of  good  teachers  will  be  felt;  and  then  will  follow 
the  corresponding  demand.  The  demand  will  induce  young  men  and 
young  women  so  to  qualify  themselves  as  to  meet  this  want.  And 
with  a  demand  for  and  supply  of  the  better  article,  the  poor  one  will 
remain  a  drug  in  the  market.  The  other  obstacles  which  now  remain 
in  the  way  of  the  employment  of  good  teachers  will  gradually  and 
forever  disappear.  Old,  dilapidated,  inconvenient,  and  unhealthy 
school-houses  will  give  place  to  new,  attractive  and  comfortable  struc- 
tures; for  districts  having  the  first  will  find  it  difficult  to  secure  the 
services  of  a  good  teacher,  who  will  understand  well  the  relations 


MR.  BARNARD'S  BEPORT.  41 

which  a  good  house  bears  to  his  own  health  and  his  success  both  in 
government  and  instruction.  That  relic  of  barbarism,  the  practice  of 
"boarding  round,"  of  compelling  the  teacher  to  live  homeless  and 
without  the  ordinary  facilities  and  seclusion  for  study,  of  being  sub- 
jected to  inconveniencies  to  which  the  lawyer,  or  clergyman,  or  me- 
chanic are  not  subjected  by  their  employers,  will  no  longer  remain  a 
hindrance  to  the  formation  of  a  permanent,  well  qualified  body  of 
professional  teachers. 

7.  It  will  do  much  in  connection  with  Teachers'  Institutes,  Conven- 
tions, and  Associations,  to  inspire  and  strengthen  a  professional  feeling 
among  teachers.     All   the  advantages   felt   by   those   who   prepare   in 
common  for  other  professions,  or  act  in  concert, — friendships,  mutual 
encouragement  and  assistance  in  studies,  discussions  and  comparisons 
of  view,  and  the  social  position  and  influence  which  follow  the  asso- 
ciation of  large  numbers  in  the  same  pursuit, — will  be  experienced. 
There  has  been  till  within  a  few  years  but  little  of  this  professional 
spirit.     Good  teachers  have  grown  up  and  remained  isolated.     Their 
experience  has  furnished  them  with  excellent  methods,  a  social  posi- 
tion,  and   adequate   pecuniary   return.     But   their   number   has   been 
small  and  their  influence  has  been  hardly  felt  beyond  their  own  school- 
rooms, much  less  has  it  been  made  to  give  elevation,  character  and 
amelioration  to  the  profession  generally. 

8.  It  will  do  something  toward  building  up  a  professional  literature 
which  shall  embody  the  experience,  reflection,  and  discussions  of  our 
own   teachers   on   the   science   and   art   of   education   as   applied   and 
developed  in  our  common  schools.     The  practice  of  writing  essays  in 
the   Normal    School    on    educational    topics;    of   discussing   the    same 
subjects  in  public  meetings  of  teachers  and  parents;  of  making  reports 
to  the  Principal  on  the  state  of  the  schools  in  which  they  may  be 
engaged,  or  which  they  may  visit,  will  lead  to  the  establishment  and 
support  of  an  Educational  Periodical  for  their  own  benefit.    By  means 
of  such  a  periodical,  an  active  spirit  of  inquiry  will  be  awakened  and 
kept  alive;  improvements  in  each  district  will  be  announced  and  made 
the  common  property  of  the  profession;  wrong  ideas  in  education  will 
be  exposed  and  exploded;  and  the  sound  practice  of  good  teachers  will 
be  embodied  in  words  and  reduced  to  the  precision  of  scientific  prin- 
ciples. 

9.  The  officers  of  this  institution  expect  to  find  in  many  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  school  a  strong  natural  impulse  to  the  study  of  education, 
and   an   enthusiastic   attachment   to   their   future   profession,    as   the 
noblest,  holiest  department  of  human  exertion.    Upon  that  class,  be  the 
same  large  or  small,  as  they  appear,  do  they  rely  for  giving  an  impulse 
of  a  most  powerful  kind  to  educational  improvement,  and  especially 
in  fields  for  which  the  laborers  are  at  present  few.    Whoever  else  may 
doubt,  or  falter  or  fail,  these  will  not.     Though  called  upon  to  labor 
in  obscurity,  they  will  toil  on  and  find  their  happiness  in  their  work. 
New  difficulties  will  only  nerve  their  hearts  for  sterner  encounters. 

These  anticipations  of  good  to  the  teachers,  the  schools,  and  the 
state,  may  all  be  darkened,  postponed  and  defeated.  Public  confidence, 
which  must  be  the  breath  of  life  to  this  enterprise,  may  be  withheld, 
or  withdrawn  through  the  influence  of  sectarian  jealously,  sectional 
prejudice,  or  party  spirit.  All  that  the  officers  of  the  Normal  School 
can  do,  to  avoid  studiously  all  just  occasions  of  offense,  and  to  deserve 
the  entire  confidence  of  the  people,  the  Legislature,  and  the  teachers 
of  the  state,  will  be  done.  All  they  ask  is  a  fair  field,  a  reasonable 
amount  of  cooperation  from  school  teachers  and  school  officers,  the 
charitable  judgments  of  their  fellow  citizens,  good  health,  and  the 
blessing  of  God  upon  their  labors. 


TOPICS 

FOB 

DISCUSSION  AND  COMPOSITION  ON  THE  THEORY  AND 
PRACTICE  OF  EDUCATION. 

1.  The  daily  preparation  which  the  teacher  should  bring  to  the 
school-room. 

2.  The  circumstances  which  make  a  teacher  happy  in  school. 

3.  The  requisites  of  success  in  teaching. 

4.  Causes  of  failure  in  teaching. 

5.  The  course  to  be  pursued  in  organizing  a  school. 

6.  The  order  of  exercises  or  programme  of  recitations. 

7.  The  policy  of  promulgating  a  code  of  rules  for  the  government 
of  a  school. 

8.  The  keeping  of  registers  of  attendance  and  progress. 

9.  The  duties  of  the  teacher  to  the  parents  of  the  children  and  to 
school-officers. 

10.  The  opening  and  closing  exercises  of  a  school. 

11.  Moral  and  religious  instruction  and  influence  generally. 

12.  The  best  use  of  the  Bible  or  Testament  in  school. 

13.  Modes  of  promoting  a  love  of  truth,  honesty,  benevolence,  and 
other  virtues  among  children. 

14.  Modes  of  promoting  obedience  to  parents,  respectful  demeanor 
to  elders,  and  general  submission  to  authority. 

15.  Modes  of  securing  cleanliness  of  person  and  neatness  of  dress, 
respect  for  the  school-room,  courtesy  of  tone  and  language  to  com- 
panions, and  gentleness  of  manners. 

16.  Modes  of  preserving  the  school-house  and  appurtenances  from 
injury  and  defacement. 

17.  Length  and  frequency  of  recess. 

18.  The  games,  and  modes  of  exercise  and  recreation  to  be  encour- 
aged during  the  recess,  and  at  intermission. 

19.  Modes  of  preventing  tardiness,  and  securing  the  regular  attend- 
ance of  children  at  school. 

20.  Causes  by   which   the   health   and   constitution   of  children   at 
school  are  impaired,  and  the  best  ways  of  counteracting  the  same. 

21.  The  government  of  a  school  generally. 

22.  The  use  and  abuse  of  corporal  punishment. 

23.  The  establishment  of  the  teacher's  authority  in  the  school. 

24.  Manner  of  treating  stubborn  and  refractory  children,  and  the 
policy  of  dismissing  the  same  from  school. 

25.  Prizes  and  rewards. 

26.  The  use  and  abuse  of  emulation. 

27.  Modes  of  interesting  and  bringing  forward  dull,  or  backward 
scholars. 

28.  Modes  of  preventing  whispering,  and   communication   between 
scholars  in  school. 


44  TOPICS   FOB   DISCUSSION. 

29.  Manner  of  conducting  recitations  generally;  and  how  to  prevent 
or  detect  imperfect  lessons. 

30.  Methods  of  teaching,  with  illustrations  of  each,  viz: 

a.  Monitorial. 

6.  Individual. 

c.  Simultaneous. 

d.  Mixed. 

e.  Interrogative. 
/.  Explanative. 
g.  Elliptical. 

h.    Synthetical. 
i.    Analytical. 

31.  Modes  of  having  all  the  children  of  a  school  (composed  as  most 
District  schools  are,  of  children  of  all  ages,  and  in  a  great  variety  of 
studies,)  at  all  times  something  to  do,  and  a  motive  for  doing  it. 

32.  Methods  of  teaching  the  several  studies  usually  introduced  into 
public  schools — such  as — 

a.  The  use,  and  nature,  and  formation  of  numbers. 

6.  Mental  Arithmetic. 

c.  Written  Arithmetic. 

d.  Spelling. 

e.  Reading. 

/.     Grammar — including  conversation,  composition,  analysis 

of  sentences,  parsing,  &c. 
g.    Geography — including  map-drawing,  use  of  outline  maps, 

atlas,  globes,  &c. 
7i.     Drawing — with  special  reference  to  the  employment  of 

young  children,  and  as  preliminary  to  penmanship. 
i.    Penmanship. 
j.    Vocal  music, 
fc.    Physiology — so  far  at  least  as  the  health  of  children  and 

teacher  in  the  school-room  is  concerned. 

33.  The  apparatus  and  means  of  visible  illustration,  necessary  for 
the  schools  of  different  grades. 

34.  The   development   and   cultivation    of    observation,     attention, 
memory,  association,  conception,  imagination,  &c. 

35.  Modes  of  inspiring  scholars  with  enthusiasm  in  study,  and  culti- 
vating habits  of  self-reliance. 

36.  Modes  of  cultivating  the   power  and   habit  of   attention  and 
study. 

37.  Anecdotes  of  occurrences  in  the  school,  brought  forward  with 
a  view  to  form  right  principles  of  moral  training  and  intellectual 
development. 

38.  Lessons,  on  real  objects,  and  the  practical  pursuits  of  life. 

39.  Topics  and  times  for  introducing  oral  instruction,  and  the  use 
of  lectures  generally. 

40.  Manner  of  imparting  collateral  and  incidental  knowledge. 

41.  The  formation  of  museums  and  collections  of  plants,  minerals, 
&c. 

42.  Exchange  of  specimens  of  penmanship,  map  and  other  drawings, 
minerals,  plants,  &c.,  between  the  different  schools  of  a  town,  or  of 
different  towns. 

43.  School  examinations  generally. 

44.  How  far  committees  should  conduct  the  examination. 


TOPICS   FOB   DISCUSSION.  45 

45.  Mode  of  conducting  an  examination  by  written  questions  and 
answers. 

46.  School  celebrations,  and  excursions  of  the  school,  or  a  portion 
of  the  scholars,  to  objects  of  interest  in  the  neighborhood. 

47.  Length  and  frequency  of  vacations. 

48.  Books  and  periodicals  on  education,  schools  and  school  systems. 

49.  Principles  to  be  regarded  in  the  construction  of  a  school-house 
for  schools  of  different  grades. 

50.  Principles   on   which   text-books    in    the    several    elementary 
studies  should  be  composed. 

51.  The  use  of  printed  questions  in  text-books. 

52.  The  private  studies  of  a  teacher. 

53.  The  visiting  of  each  other's  schools. 

54.  The  peculiar  difficulties  and  encouragements  of  each  teacher, 
in   respect  to   school-house,   attendance,   supply  of   books,   apparatus, 
parental  interest  and  co-operation,  support  by  committees,  &c,  &c. 

55.  The  practicability  of  organizing  an  association  of  the  mothers 
and  females  generally  of  a  district  or  town,  to  visit  schools,  or  of  their 
doing  so  without  any  special  organization. 

56.  Plan  for  the  organization,  course  of  instruction,  and  manage- 
ment generally  of  a  Teachers  Institute. 

57.  Advantages  of  an  Association  or  Conference  of  the  Teachers  of 
a  Town  or  State,  and  the  best  plan  of  organizing  and  conducting  the 
same. 

58.  Plan   of  a  Normal   School   or   Seminary,   for  the   training  of 
Teachers  for  Common  or  Public  Schools. 


REMARKS 

ON  SEMINARIES  FOR  TEACHERS, 

BY   REV.   THOMAS    H.   GALLAUDET. 


The  following  remarks  originally  appeared  in  the  Con- 
necticut Observer,  published  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  in  a  series 
of  articles,  with  the  signature  of  "A  Father."  The  first  ar- 
ticle was  dated  the  5th  of  January,  1825. 

No  important  result  can  be  attained  with  regard  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  any  object  which  affects  the  temporal  or  eternal  well-being  of 
our  species,  without  enlisting  an  entire  devotedness  to  it,  of  intelli- 
gence, zeal,  fidelity,  industry,  integrity,  and  practical  exertion.  What 
is  it,  that  has  furnished  us  with  able  divines,  lawyers,  and  physicians? 
The  undivided  consecration  of  the  talents  and  efforts  of  intelligent 
and  upright  individuals  to  these  professions.  How  have  these  talents 
been  matured,  and  these  efforts  been  trained,  to  their  beneficial  results? 
By  a  diligent  course  of  preparation,  and  a  long  discipline  in  the  school 
of  experience.  We  have  our  theological,  law,  and  medical  institutions, 
in  which  our  young  men  are  fitted  for  the  pursuit  of  these  respective 
professions,  by  deriving  benefit  from  the  various  sources  of  informa- 
tion which  libraries,  lectures,  and  experiments  afford.  Unaided  by 
such  auxiliaries,  genius,  however  brilliant;  invention,  however  prolific; 
observation,  however  acute;  ingenuity,  however  ready;  and  persever- 
ance, however  indefatiguable,  have  to  grope  their  way,  through  a 
long  and  tiresome  process,  to  the  attainment  of  results  which  a  little 
acquaintance  with  the  labors  of  others  in  the  same  track  of  effort, 
would  render  a  thousand  times  more  easy,  rapid,  and  delightful.  Ex- 
perience is  the  storehouse  of  knowledge.  Now  why  should  not  this 
experience  be  resorted  to  as  an  auxiliary  in  the  education  of  youth? 
Why  not  make  this  department  of  human  exertion,  a  profession,  as 
well  as  those  of  divinity,  law,  and  medicine?  Why  not  have  an  Insti- 
tution for  the  training  up  of  Instructors  for  their  sphere  of  labor,  as 
well  as  institutions  to  prepare  young  men  for  the  duties  of  the  divine, 
the  lawyer,  or  the  physician? 

Can  a  subject  of  more  interest  present  itself  to  the  consideration  of 
the  public?  Does  not  the  future  improvement  of  our  species,  to  which 
the  philanthropist  and  the  Christian  look  forward  with  such  delightful 
anticipation,  depend  on  the  plans  which  are  adopted  for  the  develop- 
ment and  cultivation  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  powers  of  man? 
Must  not  these  plans  begin  with  infancy  and  childhood?  Do  not  the 
attainments  of  the  pupil  depend  upon  the  talents,  fidelity,  and  the 
integrity  of  those  by  whom  he  is  taught?  How  will  he  learn  to  think, 
to  speak,  to  read,  and  to  write  with  accuracy,  unless  his  instructors 
are  able  to  teach  him?  Shall  their  ability  depend  upon  their  indi- 
vidual experience  and  attainments?  Are  you  satisfied  with  a  divine, 
a  lawyer,  or  a  physician,  who  has  qualified  himself,  or  pretended  to 
do  so,  for  his  profession,  by  solitary,  unaided,  unadvised,  untaught, 
inexperienced  efforts?  You  do  not  do  this.  Why  not  then,  require 
in  the  instructors  of  youth,  to  whom  you  commit  the  training  up  of 
your  offspring,  an  adequate  preparation  for  their  most  important  and 
responsible  employment? 


48  MB.   GAIXAUDET,   ON   TEACHERS'    SEMINARIES. 

But  this  preparatory  discipline  is  considered  indispensable  not 
merely  for  the  learned  professions,  but  for  the  ordinary  occupations 
of  life.  A  term  of  years  is  required  to  fulfill  the  duties  of  an  ap- 
prenticeship to  any  of  the  mechanical  trades.  An  artisan  does  not 
venture  to  solicit  the  patronage  of  the  public,  till  he  has  undergone 
this  apprenticeship.  This  training  under  the  instruction  of  experi- 
enced masters,  is  deemed  of  still  more  importance  in  what  are  termed 
the  liberal  arts,  such  as  painting,  sculpture,  and  engraving.  To  foster 
them,  academies  are  formed;  models  are  collected;  lectures  are  de- 
livered; and  the  young  novitiate  is  willing  to  devote  years  of  patient 
and  assiduous  labor,  to  fit  himself  for  success  in  his  profession.  We 
hear,  too,  of  what  is  termed  a  regularly-bred  merchant;  and  the 
drilling  of  the  counter  and  the  counting-house  is  considered  indis- 
pensable to  prepare  one  for  all  the  complicated  transactions  of  trade 
and  commerce.  And  if  men  are  to  be  trained  to  arms,  academies 
are  established,  at  which  experience,  ingenuity,  and  science  are  put 
in  requisition,  to  qualify  the  young  and  inexperienced  for  military 
exploits.  In  fact,  there  is  scarce  any  pursuit  connected  with  the 
business  of  life,  but  what  men  have  endeavored  to  render  successful, 
by  a  process  predicated  on  well-known  principles  of  human  nature;  — 
by  making  it,  in  the  first  place,  a  distinct  profession  or  calling; 
then,  by  yielding  to  those  who  have  long  been  engaged  in  it  the 
deference  which  their  experience  justly  demands;  and  finally,  by  com- 
pelling those  who  would  wish  to  adopt  it,  to  devote  themselves  to  it, 
and  to  pass  through  all  the  preparatory  steps  which  are  necessary  for 
the  consummation  of  their  acquaintance,  both  with  its  theory  and 
practice.  In  this  way  only  we  hope  to  form  good  mechanics,  painters, 
engravers,  sculptors,  farmers,  merchants,  physicians,  and  lawyers. 

Perhaps  some  of  my  illustrations  may  be  considered  of  too  humble 
a  kind.  But  my  subject  is  a  very  practical  one,  and  I  intend  to  treat 
it  in  a  practical  way.  Permit  me,  then,  to  inquire  of  my  readers,  when 
they  wish  to  get  a  shoe  made,  to  whom  they  apply.  Do  they  not  take 
considerable  pains  to  find  a  first-rate  workman;  one  who  has  learned 
his  trade  well,  and  who  can  execute  his  work  in  the  best  manner? 
And  when  our  wives  and  daughters  want  a  new  bonnet,  or  a  new 
dress,  will  they  not  make  a  great  many  inquiries,  and  take  not  a  few 
steps,  and  consume  no  small  portion  of  very  valuable  time,  to  ascertain 
the  important  fact,  who  is  the  most  skillful  and  tasteful  milliner  and 
seamstress  within  their  reach;  and  are  they  not  willing  to  undergo 
many  inconveniences,  and  to  wait  till  their  patience  is  almost  ex- 
hausted, and  their  wants  very  clamorous,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
precious  satisfaction  of  having  the  work  done  by  hands  whose  skill 
and  ingenuity  have  been  long  tested,  and  on  whose  experience  and 
judgment  in  adjusting  colors,  and  qualities,  and  proportions,  and 
symmetry,  and  shape,  they  can  safely  rely? 

Is  a  shoe,  or  a  bonnet,  to  be  put  in  competition  with  an  immortal 
mindf 

In  your  very  articles  of  dress  to  clothe  a  frail,  perishable  body,  that 
is  soon  to  become  the  prey  of  corruption,  will  you  be  so  scrupulous  in 
the  choice  of  those  whom  you  employ  to  make  them;  and  yet  feel  no 
solicitude  in  requiring  of  those  to  whom  is  entrusted  the  formation  of 
the  habits,  and  thoughts  and  feelings  of  a  soul  that  is  to  live  for  ever, 
a  preparation  for  their  most  responsible  task;  an  apprenticeship  to 
their  important  calling;  a  devotedness  to  a  pursuit  which  involves  all 
that  can  affect  the  tenderest  sympathies  of  a  kind  parent, — the  most 
ardent  hopes  of  a  true  patriot, — the  most  expanded  views  of  a  sincere 
philanthropist, — the  most  benevolent  wishes  of  a  devout  Christian? 


MR.   GALLAUDET,   ON   TEACHERS'    SEMINARIES.  49 

I  am  told  that  the  Patent-office  at  Washington  is  thronged  with 
models  of  machines,  intended  to  facilitate  the  various  processes  of 
mechanical  labor;  and  I  read  in  our  public  prints,  of  the  deep  interest 
which  is  felt  in  any  of  those  happy  discoveries  that  are  made  to  provide 
for  the  wants,  and  comforts,  and  luxuries  of  man,  at  an  easier  and  a 
cheaper  rate;  and  I  hear  those  eulogized  as  the  benefactors  of  our  race, 
whose  genius  invents,  and  whose  patient  application  carries  into  effect 
any  project  for  winnowing  some  sheaves  of  wheat  a  little  quicker,  or 
spinning  some  threads  of  cotton  a  little  sooner,  or  propelling  a  boat  a 
little  faster,  than  has  heretofore  been  done;  and,  all  this  while,  how 
comparatively  few  improvements  are  made  in  the  process  of  educating 
the  youthful  mind;  and  in  training  it  for  usefulness  in  this  life,  and 
for  happiness  in  the  life  to  come! 

Is  human  ingenuity  and  skill  to  be  on  the  alert  in  almost  every  other 
field  of  enterprise  but  this?  How  can  we  reconcile  our  apathy  on  this 
subject  with  the  duties  which  we  owe  to  our  children,  to  our  country, 
and  to  our  God? 

Let  the  same  provision,  then,  be  made  for  giving  success  to  this  de- 
partment of  effort  that  is  so  liberally  made  for  all  others.  Let  an  in- 
stitution be  established  in  every  state,  for  the  express  purpose  of  train- 
ing up  young  men  for  the  profession  of  instructors  of  youth  in  the 
common  branches  of  an  English  education.  Let  it  be  so  well  endowed, 
by  the  liberality  of  the  public,  or  of  individuals,  as  to  have  two  or 
three  professors,  men  of  talents  and  habits  adapted  to  the  pursuit,  who 
should  devote  their  lives  to  the  object  of  the  "Theory  and  Practice  of 
the  Education  of  Youth,"  and  who  should  prepare  and  deliver,  and 
print,  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  subject. 

Let  the  institution  be  furnished  with  a  library,  which  shall  contain 
all  the  works,  theoretical  and  practical,  in  all  languages,  that  can  be 
obtained  on  the  subject  of  education,  and  also  with  all  the  apparatus 
that  modern  ingenuity  has  devised  for  this  purpose;  such  as  maps, 
charts,  globes,  orreries,  &c. 

Let  there  be  connected  with  the  institution,  a  school,  smaller  or 
larger,  as  circumstances  might  dictate,  in  which  the  theories  of  the 
professors  might  be  reduced  to  practice,  and  from  which  daily  ex- 
perience would  derive  a  thousand  useful  instructions. 

To  such  an  Institution  let  young  men  resort  who  are  ready  to  devote 
themselves  to  the  business  of  instructors  of  youth.  Let  them  attend  a 
regular  course  of  lectures  on  the  subject  of  education;  read  the  best 
works;  take  their  turns  in  the  instruction  of  the  experimental  school, 
and  after  thus  becoming  qualified  for  their  office,  leave  the  Institution 
with  a  suitable  certificate  or  diploma,  recommending  them  to  the  con- 
fidence of  the  public. 

I  have  scarcely  room  to  allude  to  the  advantages  which  would  result 
from  such  a  plan.  It  would  direct  the  attention,  and  concentrate  the 
efforts,  and  inspire  the  zeal,  of  many  worthy  and  intelligent  minds  to 
one  important  object.  They  would  excite  each  other  in  this  new  career 
of  doing  good.  Every  year  would  produce  a  valuable  accession  to  the 
mass  of  experience  that  would  be  constantly  accumulating  at  such  a 
store-house  of  knowledge.  The  business  of  instructing  youth  would  be 
reduced  to  a  system,  which  would  embrace  the  best  and  the  readiest 
mode  of  conducting  it.  This  system  would  be  gradually  diffused 
throughout  the  community.  Our  instructors  would  rank,  as  they  ought 
to  do,  among  the  most  respectable  professions.  We  should  know  to 
whom  we  intrusted  the  care  and  education  of  our  offspring.  These 
instructors,  corresponding,  as  they  naturally  would,  with  the  Institu- 

D 


50  MR.    GALLAXJDET,    ON   TEACHERS*    SEMINARIES. 

tion  which  they  had  left,  and  visiting  it,  at  its  annual,  and  my  imagin- 
ation already  portrays,  delightful  festivals,  would  impart  to  it,  and  to 
each  other,  the  discoveries  and  improvements  which  they  might  in- 
dividually make,  in  their  separate  spheres  of  employment. 

In  addition  to  all  this,  what  great  advantages  such  an  institution 
would  afford,  by  the  combined  talents  of  its  professors,  its  library,  its 
experimental  school,  and  perhaps  by  the  endowment  of  two  or  three 
fellowships,  for  this  very  object,  for  the  formation  of  the  best  books  to 
be  employed  in  the  early  stages  of  education;  a  desideratum,  which 
none  but  some  intelligent  mothers,  and  a  few  others  who  have  devoted 
themselves  to  so  humble,  yet  important  an  object,  can  duly  appreciate. 

Such  an  Institution,  too,  would  soon  become  the  center  of  information 
on  all  topics  connected  with  the  education  of  youth;  and  thus,  the  com- 
bined results  of  those  individuals  in  domestic  life,  whose  attention  has 
been  directed  to  the  subject,  would  be  brought  to  a  point,  examined, 
weighed,  matured,  digested,  systematized,  promulgated,  and  carried  in- 
to effect. 

Such  an  Institution  would  also  tend  to  elevate  the  tone  of  public 
sentiment,  and  to  quicken  the  seal  of  public  effort  with  regard  to  the 
correct  intellectual  and  moral  education  of  the  rising  generation. 

To  accomplish  any  great  object,  the  co-operation  of  numbers  is  neces- 
sary. This  is  emphatically  true  in  our  republican  community.  Individ- 
ual influence,  or  wealth,  is  inadequate  to  the  task.  Monarchs,  or 
nobles,  may  singly  devise,  and  carry  into  effect,  Herculean  enterprises. 
But  we  have  no  royal  institutions;  ours  must  be  of  more  gradual 
growth,  and  perhaps,  too,  may  aspire  to  more  generous  and  impartial 
beneficence,  and  attain  to  more  settled  and  immovable  stability.  Now 
to  concentrate  the  attention,  and  interest,  and  exertions  of  the  public 
on  any  important  object,  it  must  assume  a  definite  and  palpable  form. 
It  must  have  "a  local  habitation  and  name."  For  instance,  you  may, 
by  statements  of  facts,  and  by  eloquent  appeals  to  the  sympathies  of 
others,  excite  a  good  deal  of  feeling  with  regard  to  the  deaf  and 
dumb,  or  to  the  insane.  But  so  long  as  you  fail  to  direct  this  good 
will  in  some  particular  channel  of  practical  effort,  you  only  play  round 
the  hearts  of  those  whom  you  wish  to  enlist  in  the  cause.  They  will 
think,  and  feel,  and  talk,  and  hope  that  something  will  be  done;  but 
that  is  all.  But  erect  your  Asylum  for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  your 
Retreat  for  the  insane.  Bring  these  objects  of  your  pity  together. 
Let  the  public  see  them.  Commence  your  plans  of  relief.  Show  that 
something  can  be  done,  and  how  and  where  it  can  be  done,  and  you 
bring  into  action  that  sympathy  and  benevolence  which  would  other- 
wise have  been  wasted  in  mere  wishes,  and  hopes,  and  expectations. 
Just  so,  with  regard  to  improvements  in  education.  Establish  an 
Institution,  such  as  I  have  ventured  to  recommend,  in  every  state. 
The  public  attention  will  be  directed  to  it.  Its  Professors  will  have 
their  friends  and  correspondents  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  to 
whom  they  will,  from  time  to  time,  communicate  the  results  of  their 
speculations  and  efforts,  and  to  whom  they  will  impart  a  portion  of 
the  enthusiasm  which  they  themselves  feel.  Such  an  Institution,  too, 
would  soon  become  an  object  of  laudable  curiosity.  Thousands  would 
visit  it.  Its  experimental  school,  if  properly  conducted,  would  form 
a  most  delightful  and  interesting  spectacle.  Its  library  and  various 
apparatus  would  be,  I  may  say,  a  novelty  in  this  department  of  the 
philosophy  of  the  human  mind.  It  would  probably,  also,  have  its  public 
examinations,  which  would  draw  together  an  assembly  of  intelligent 
and  literary  individuals.  Its  students,  as  they  dispersed  through  the 
community,  would  carry  with  them  the  spirit  of  the  Institution,  and 


MR.   GALLAUDET,   ON   TEACHERS'    SEMINARIES.  51 

thus,  by  these  various  processes  of  communication,  the  whole  mass  of 
public  sentiment,  and  feeling,  and  effort,  would  be  imbued  with  it. 

Another  advantage  resulting  from  such  an  Institution,  would  be,  that 
it  would  lead  to  the  investigation  and  establishment  of  those  principles 
of  discipline  and  government  most  likely  to  promote  the  progress  of 
children  and  youth  in  the  acquisition  of  intellectual  and  moral  ex- 
cellence. How  sadly  vague  and  unsettled  are  most  of  the  plans  in  this 
important  part  of  education,  now  in  operation  in  our  common  schools. 
What  is  the  regular  and  well-defined  system  of  praise  and  blame;  of 
rewards  and  punishments;  of  exciting  competition  or  appealing  to 
better  feelings;  in  short,  of  cultivating  the  moral  and  religious  temper 
of  the  pupil,  while  his  intellectual  improvement  is  going  on,  which 
now  pervades  our  schools?  Even  the  gardener,  whom  you  employ  to 
deck  your  flower  beds,  and  cultivate  your  vegetables,  and  rear  your 
fruit  trees,  you  expect  to  proceed  upon  some  matured  and  well-under- 
stood plan  of  operation.  On  this  subject  I  can  hardly  restrain  my 
emotions.  I  am  almost  ready  to  exclaim,  shame  on  those  fathers  and 
mothers,  who  inquire  not  at  all,  who  almost  seem  to  care  not  at  all, 
with  regard  to  the  moral  discipline  that  is  pursued  by  instructors  in 
cultivating  the  temper  and  disposition  of  their  children.  On  this 
subject,  every  thing  depends  on  the  character  and  habits  of  the  in- 
structor; on  the  plans  he  lays  down  for  himself;  on  the  modes  by 
which  he  carries  these  plans  into  effect.  Here,  as  in  every  thing  else, 
system  is  of  the  highest  importance.  Nothing  should  be  left  to  whim 
and  caprice.  What  is  to  be  this  system?  Who  shall  devise  it? 
Prudence,  sagacity,  affection,  firmness,  and  above  all,  experience, 
should  combine  their  skill  and  effort  to  produce  it.  At  such  an  Insti- 
tution, as  I  have  proposed,  these  requisites  would  be  most  likely  to 
be  found.  Then  might  we  hope  to  see  the  heart  improved,  while  the 
mind  expanded;  and  knowledge,  human  and  divine,  putting  forth  its 
fruits,  not  by  the  mere  dint  of  arbitrary  authority,  but  by  the  gentler 
persuasion  of  motives  addressed  to  those  moral  principles  of  our 
nature,  the  cultivation  of  which  reason  and  religion  alike  inculcate. 

It  is  feared  by  some  that  it  will  be  impossible  ever  to  produce  a 
sufficient  degree  of  public  interest  in  such  a  project  to  carry  it  into 
effect. 

I  am  not  so  sanguine  as  to  think,  that  the  whole  mass  of  the  com- 
munity can,  at  once,  be  electrified,  as  it  were,  by  any  appeals,  how- 
ever eloquent,  or  any  efforts,  however  strenuous,  into  one  deep  and 
universal  excitement  on  this  or  any  other  topic.  Information  must  be 
gradually  diffused;  the  feelings  of  influential  men  in  various  sections 
of  the  country  must  be  enlisted;  able  writers  in  our  public  prints  and 
magazines  must  engage  their  hearts  and  their  pens  in  the  cause. 

In  addition  to  all  this,  suppose  that  some  intelligent  and  respectable 
individual,  after  having  made  himself  master  of  the  subject  in  all  its 
bearings,  and  consulted  with  the  wise  and  judicious  within  his  reach, 
who  might  feel  an  interest  in  it,  should  prepare  a  course  of  lectures, 
and  spend  a  season  or  two  in  delivering  them  in  our  most  populous 
towns  and  cities.  The  novelty  of  this,  if  no  other  cause,  would  attract 
a  great  many  hearers.  Such  an  individual,  too,  in  his  excursions, 
would  have  the  best  opportunity  of  conferring  with  well-informed  and 
influential  men;  of  gaining  their  views;  of  learning  the  extent  and 
weight  of  all  the  obstacles  which  such  a  project  would  have  to  en- 
counter, and  the  best  modes  of  removing  them;  and,  if  it  should  indeed 
appear  deserving  of  patronage,  of  enlisting  public  sentiment  and  feeling 
in  its  favor. 


52  MR.   GALLAUDET,    ON   TEACHERS1    SEMINARIES. 

But  after  all,  I  do  not  deem  it,  at  present,  necessary  for  the  com- 
mencement of  the  plan  which  I  have  proposed,  that  any  thing  like  an 
universal  public  interest  should  be  taken  in  it. 

If  the  experiment  could,  at  first,  be  made  upon  a  small  scale;  if  such 
an  Institution  could  be  moderately  endowed  with  funds  sufficient  to 
support  one  or  two  professors,  and  procure  even  the  elements  of  a 
library,  afterward  to  be  enlarged  as  public  or  private  bounty  might 
permit;  if  it  could  be  established  in  some  town  large  enough  to  furnish 
from  its  youthful  population,  pupils  to  form  its  experimental  school; 
and  if  only  a  few  young  men,  of  talents  and  worth,  could  be  induced 
to  resort  to  it,  with  an  intention  of  devoting  themselves  to  the  busi- 
ness of  instruction  as  a  profession, — it  would  not,  I  think,  be  long 
before  its  practical  utility  would  be  demonstrated.  The  instructors, 
although  few  in  number,  who  would,  at  first,  leave  the  Institution, 
would  probably  be  located  in  some  of  our  larger  towns.  Their  modes 
of  instruction  would  be  witnessed  by  numbers  of  the  influential  and 
intelligent,  and,  if  successful,  would  soon  create  a  demand  for  other 
instructors  of  similar  qualifications.  And  as  soon  as  such  a  demand 
should  be  produced,  other  individuals  would  be  found  willing  to  pre- 
pare themselves  to  meet  it.  And  thus  we  might  hope  that  both  private 
and  public  munificence,  so  bountifully  bestowed,  at  the  present  day, 
on  other  useful  objects,  would  eventually  contribute  a  portion  of  its 
aid  to  an  establishment  designed  to  train  up  our  youth  more  success- 
fully to  derive  benefit  from  all  the  other  efforts  of  benevolence,  or 
institutions  of  literature  and  religion,  which  are  so  widely  extending 
their  influence  through  every  part  of  our  highly-favored  country. 

Another  obstacle,  in  the  prosecution  of  such  a  plan,  is  the  difficulty 
of  inducing  young  men  of  character  and  talents  to  embark  in  it,  and 
to  devote  themselves  to  the  business  of  instruction  for  life. 

I  can  not  but  hope  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant,  when  the  educa- 
tion of  youth  will  assume,  in  the  minds  of  intelligent  and  pious  indi- 
viduals, its  proper  place  among  the  various  other  benevolent  exertions 
which  are  made,  through  the  aids  of  private  and  public  bounty,  for 
meliorating  the  temporal  and  eternal  condition  of  man.  In  the  mean- 
while, can  not  a  few  young  men,  of  talents  and  piety,  be  led  to  feel 
that  the  thousands  of  our  rising  generation,  the  hope  of  the  church 
and  the  state,  have  strong  claims  upon  their  benevolence;  and  that  to 
concentrate  their  time  and  their  efforts  to  such  an  enterprise,  may  be 
as  much  their  duty  as  to  engage  in  the  missionary  cause?  Missionaries 
make  great  sacrifices,  and  practice  much  self-denial,  and  endure 
weighty  labors,  without  any  prospect  of  temporal  emolument,  in  order 
to  train  up  heathen  youth  for  usefulness  in  this  world,  and  for  happi- 
ness in  the  next;  and  can  not  those  be  found  who  will  undergo  some 
sacrifices,  and  self-denial,  and  labor,  to  bring  about  so  great  a  good 
as  a  reformation  in  the  instruction  of  those  youth  who  are  bone  of  our 
bone,  and  flesh  of  our  flesh  f  Only  admit  the  importance  of  the  object, 
(and  who  can  deny  it)  and  it  almost  looks  like  an  impeachment  of 
their  Christian  sincerity,  to  suppose  that  among  those  hundreds  of 
young  men  who  are  pressing  forward  into  the  ranks  of  charitable  enter- 
prise, none  can  be  persuaded  to  enter  upon  a  domestic  field  of  labor, 
which  promises  so  much  for  the  advancement  of  the  Redeemer's  king- 
dom. No,  only  let  the  project  be  begun,  let  the  way  of  usefulness  be 
opened,  let  the  countenance  and  support  of  even  a  few  pious  and 
influential  individuals  be  afforded,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  agents  to 
carry  on  the  work,  at  least  to  commence  it,  will  not  be  wanting. 

The  difficulty  is  not  in  being  unable  to  procure  such  agents;  it  lies 
deeper:  it  arises  from  the  very  little  interest  that  has  yet  been  taken 


MR.  CAM. .U-IIKT.  ON  TKACHI.KS'   SKM  INAKIKS.  53 

in  the  subject;  from  the  strange  neglect,  among  parents,  and  patriots, 
and  Christians,  of  a  well-digested  and  systematic  plan  for  the  education 
of  children  and  youth;  from  the  sluggish  contentment  that  is  felt  with 
the  long  established  modes  of  instruction;  and  from  the  apprehensions 
that  all  improvements  are  either  unsafe  or  chimerical. 

Once  rouse  this  apathy  into  the  putting  forth  of  a  little  exertion,  and 
invest  the  subject  with  its  true  dignity  and  importance,  and  let  it  be 
felt  that  the  church  is  under  the  most  solemn  obligations  to  feed  the 
lambs  of  her  flock,  and  your  young  men  will  come  at  her  bidding,  to 
spend  their  strength  and  their  days  in  this  delightful  service. 

But  these  young  men  are  poor  and  can  not  defray  the  expense  of  a 
preparatory  education  at  such  a  Seminary  as  has  been  proposed. 

Poor  young  men  are  taken  by  the  hand  of  charity,  and  prepared  for 
other  spheres  of  benevolent  exertion;  and  shall  this  wide,  and  as  yet 
almost  uncultivated  field  of  benevolence  be  quite  neglected,  for  the 
want  of  a  little  pecuniary  aid?  Who  gave  the  first  impulse  to  Foreign 
Missionary  efforts?  Was  nothing  done  until  the  whole  Christian  public 
was  awakened  to  a  sense  of  its  duty?  Did  this  mighty  enterprise 
begin  in  the  collected  councils  of  the  grave  and  venerable  fathers 
of  the  church?  Was  the  whole  plan  of  operation  digested  and  matured 
in  all  its  parts,  and  no  steps  taken  until  all  obstacles  were  removed, 
and  patronage,  and  influence,  and  means  collected  and  concentrated 
to  insure  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  vast  design?  No;  long,  long 
before  all  this  complicated  machinery  was  put  in  motion,  the  master- 
spring  was  at  work,  and  a  few  pious  and  prayerful  young  men  gave  an 
impulse,  at  first  to  private  zeal,  and  afterward  to  public  co-operation, 
and  the  result  fills  us  with  gratitude  and  astonishment. 

Let  a  MILLS  and  his  associates  arise  to  a  hearty  engagedness  in  the 
project  of  diffusing  throughout  our  country  a  system  for  the  best 
mode  of  conducting  the  education  of  youth;  let  their  faith  be  strong, 
and  their  perseverance  unwavering;  and  influence  and  wealth  will 
soon  contribute  their  share  in  the  prosecution  of  the  work,  and  poverty 
on  the  part  of  those  who  are  willing  to  endure  the  heat  and  burden  of 
the  day,  will  cease  to  be  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  accomplishing  their 
benevolent  designs.  Providence  can,  in  this,  as  in  all  the  other  de- 
partments of  his  dispensations,  make  even  the  selfish  passions  of  our 
nature  contribute  to  the  promotion  of  good  and  charitable  exertions. 

Those  who  should  devote  themselves  to  the  business  of  the  instruc- 
tion of  youth  os  a  profession,  and  who  should  prepare  themselves  for 
it  by  a  course  of  study  and  discipline  at  such  a  Seminary  as  I  have 
proposed,  would  not  find  it  necessary,  as  our  missionaries  do,  to  de- 
pend on  the  charity  of  their  countrymen  for  support.  Their  talents, 
their  qualifications,  and  their  recommendations,  would  inspire  public 
confidence,  and  command  public  patronage.  For  experience  would  soon 
prove,  if  it  can  not  be  now  seen  in  prospect,  that  to  save  time  in  the 
education  of  youth,  and  to  have  this  education,  complete  instead  of 
being  imperfect,  and  to  prepare  the  youthful  mind  for  accurate  thought, 
and  correct  feeling,  and  practical,  energetic  action,  in  all  the  business 
of  life,  is  to  save  money;  and  even  those  who  now  expend  a  few 
dollars  with  so  niggardly  a  hand,  in  the  education  of  their  dear,  im- 
mortal offspring,  would  soon  learn  how  to  calculate  on  the  closest 
principles  of  loss  and  gain,  in  the  employment  of  instructors,  and  be 
willing  to  give  twice  as  much  to  him  who  would  do  his  work  twice  as 
well  and  in  half  the  time,  as  they  now  give  to  him  who  has  neither 
skill  nor  experience  in  his  profession. 

Am  I  extravagant  in  these  speculations?  I  think  I  am  not;  and  if 
my  readers  will  exercise  a  little  more  patience,  I  hope  to  show,  that  in 


54  MR.    GAIXAUDET,    ON   TEACHEKS'    SEMINARIES. 

adopting  the  plan  which  I  have  proposed,  there  will  be  an  actual  saving 
of  money  to  individuals  and  to  the  state,  in  addition  to  those  numerous 
advantages  in  a  social,  political,  and  religious  point  of  view,  that  would 
result  from  it,  and  which  are,  if  I  mistake  not,  so  great,  that  if  they 
could  not  be  attained  in  any  other  way,  a  pecuniary  sacrifice  ought  not 
for  a  moment  to  stand  in  competition  with  them. 

My  reasoning  is  founded  on  two  positions,  which,  I  think,  can  not  be 
controverted; — that  the  present  modes  of  instructing  youth  are  sus- 
ceptible of  vast  improvement;  and  that  if  these  improvements  could 
be  carried  into  operation,  by  having  a  more  effectual  system  of  educa- 
tion adopted,  and  by  training  up  instructors  of  superior  attainments 
and  skill,  there  would  be  a  great  saving,  both  of  time  and  labor,  and 
of  all  the  contingent  expenses  necessary  to  be  incurred. 

Suppose,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  though  I  believe  it  falls  short 
of  the  truth,  that  eight  years  of  pretty  constant  attendance  at  school, 
counting  from  the  time  that  a  child  begins  to  learn  his  letters,  is 
necessary  to  give  him  what  is  called  a  good  English  education.  I  do 
not  fear  to  hazard  the  assertion,  that  under  an  approved  system  of 
education,  with  suitable  books  prepared  for  the  purpose,  and  conducted 
by  more  intelligent  and  experienced  instructors,  as  much  would  be 
acquired  in  five  years,  by  our  children  and  youth,  as  is  now  acquired 
in  eight. 

Now  with  regard  to  those  parents  who  calculate  on  receiving  benefit 
from  the  labor  of  their  children,  it  will  easily  be  seen  that,  by  gaining 
three  years  out  of  eight  in  the  course  of  their  education,  there  will  be 
an  immense  saving  to  the  state.  This  saving  alone  would,  I  appre- 
hend, if  youth  were  usefully  employed,  more  than  defray  the  additional 
wages  which  would  have  to  be  given  to  instructors  of  skill  and  ex- 
perience, and  who  should  devote  themselves  to  their  employment  as  a 
profession  for  life.  But  if  even  the  advantage  to  be  derived  from  the 
labor  of  children  is  not  taken  into  the  account,  it  is  evident  that,  for 
having  the  same  object  accomplished  in  five  years  that  now  consumes 
eight,  you  could  at  least  afford  to  pay  as  much  for  five  years  of  in- 
struction as  you  now  pay  for  eight.  In  addition  to  this,  as  it  is  the 
custom  in  many  of  our  country  towns  for  the  instructor  to  board  in 
the  families  of  those  who  send  children  to  school,  there  would  be  a 
saving  also  in  this  respect.  There  would  be  a  saving,  too,  with  regard 
to  all  the  contingent  expenses  of  the  school,  such  as  books,  stationery, 
wood,  &c. 

In  a  community  constituted  like  that  of  New  England,  where  so 
great  a  proportion  of  its  population  is  devoted  to  agricultural  and 
mechanical  pursuits,  any  system  of  education  which  could  save  the 
public  three  years  out  of  eight  of  the  time  and  labor  of  all  its  children 
and  youth,  would,  it  is  manifest,  add  an  immense  sum  to  the  pecuniary 
resources  of  the  country,  and  recommend  itself  to  every  patriot  and 
philanthropist,  even  on  the  most  rigid  principles  of  a  calculating 
economy. 

Besides,  the  grand  objects  of  education — to  prepare  the  rising  gen- 
eration for  usefulness  and  respectability  in  life,  and  to  train  them  up 
for  a  better  and  happier  state  of  existence  beyond  the  grave — would 
not  only  be  accomplished  in  a  shorter  space  of  time,  but  they  would  be 
much  more  effectually  accomplished.  At  present,  with  all  the  time, 
and  labor,  and  expense  bestowed  upon  it,  the  work  is  only  half  done; 
and  the  effects  of  our  imperfect  modes  of  instruction  are  to  render 
youth  far  less  competent  to  succeed  in  any  pursuits  in  which  they  may 
engage,  than  if  their  education  was  conducted  by  intelligent  instruc- 


MB.   GALLAUDET,   ON   TEACHERS'    SEMINARIES.  55 

tors,  on  a  well-digested  plan,  and  made  as  thorough  and  complete  as  it 
might  be. 

How  often  has  the  individual  of  native  vigor  of  intellect  and  force 
of  enterprise  to  lament,  through  a  long  life  of  unremitted  effort,  his 
many  disappointments  in  the  prosecution  of  his  plans  of  business, 
arising  altogether  from  the  defects  of  his  early  education!  And  if  this 
early  education  were  properly  conducted,  what  an  accession  it  would 
yield  to  the  resources  of  the  community,  in  the  superior  ingenuity  and 
skill  of  our  artists;  in  the  more  accurate  and  systematic  transactions 
of  our  merchants;  in  the  profounder  studies  and  more  successful  labors 
of  our  professional  men;  in  the  wider  experience  and  deeper  sagacity 
of  our  statesmen  and  politicians;  in  the  higher  attainments  and  loftier 
productions  of  our  sons  of  literature  and  science;  and,  permit  me  to 
add,  in  the  nobler  patriotism,  the  purer  morals,  and  the  more  ardent 
piety  of  the  whole  mass  of  our  citizens. 

I  know  it  is  no  easy  task  to  convince  some  minds  that  all  these 
advantages  yield  just  so  many  dollars  and  cents  to  the  private  purse, 
or  to  the  public  treasury.  But  my  appeal  is  to  those  who  take  a 
more  comprehensive  view  of  what  constitutes  the  real  wealth  of  any 
community,  and  who  estimate  objects  not  by  what  they  will  to-day 
fetch  in  the  market,  if  exposed  to  sale,  but  by  their  effects  upon  the 
permanent  well-being  and  prosperity  of  the  state. 

With  such  I  leave  the  candid  consideration  of  the  remarks  which  I 
have  offered  in  this  and  the  preceding  Essays;  in  the  mean  while, 
cherishing  the  hope,  that  that  Being  who  is  now  most  wonderfully 
adjusting  the  various  enterprises  of  benevolence,  that  distinguish  the 
age  in  which  we  live  from  all  others  which  have  preceded  it,  to  the 
consummation  of  His  gracious  designs  for  the  universal  happiness  of 
man,  on  the  principles  which  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  inculcates, 
and  which  it  alone  can  produce,  will,  sooner  or  later,  and  in  some  way 
or  other,  rouse  the  attention,  and  direct  the  efforts  of  the  Christian 
world  to  that  department  of  philanthropic  exertion,  the  neglect  of 
which  must  retard,  if  not  quite  counteract,  complete  success  in  all 
others, — the  education  of  youth." 

After  the  lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  the  author  of 
the  above  remarks  had  the  satisfaction  of  being  present  on 
the  15th  of  May,  1850,  at  New  Britain,  and  of  taking  part 
in  exercises  appropriate  to  the  opening  of  the  "Normal 
School,  or  Seminary  for  the  training  of  teachers  in  the  art 
of  instructing  and  governing  the  common  schools  of  this 
state."  The  members  of  the  school,  during  the  first  term, 
formed  an  Association  for  mutual  improvement,  to  which 
they  have  given  the  name  of  the  "Gallaudet  Society,"  as  an 
evidence  of  their  appreciation  of  his  early  and  long-contin- 
ued labors  to  bring  about  the  establishment  of  a  Normal 
School  in  Connecticut. 


FIRST  ANNUAL  CIRCULAR 

OF    THE 

STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  AT  NEW  BRITAIN. 


THE  State  Normal  School  or  "Seminary  for  the  training  of  teachers 
in  the  art  of  teaching  and  governing  the  Common  Schools"  of  Con- 
necticut, was  established  by  act  of  the  Legislature,  May  session,  1849, 
and  the  sum  of  eleven  thousand  dollars  was  appropriated  for  its 
support  for  a  period  of  at  least  four  years. 

The  sum  appropriated  for  the  support  of  the  school  is  derived  not 
from  the  income  of  the  School  Fund,  or  any  of  the  ordinary  resources 
of  the  Treasury,  but  from  a  bonus  of  ten  thousand  dollars  paid  by  the 
State  Bank,  at  Hartford,  and  of  $1000  paid  by  the  Deep  River  Bank, 
for  their  respective  charters.  No  part  of  this  sum  can  be  expended 
in  any  building  or  fixtures  for  the  school,  or  for  the  compensation  of 
the  trustees. 

The  entire  management  of  the  Institution,  as  to  the  application  of 
the  funds,  the  location  of  the  school,  the  regulation  of  the  studies 
and  exercises,  and  the  granting  of  diplomas,  is  committed  to  a  Board 
of  Trustees,  consisting  of  the  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools, 
ex  officio,  and  one  member  for  each  of  the  eight  counties  of  the  state, 
appointed  by  the  Legislature,  two  in  each  year,  and  to  hold  their 
office  for  the  term  of  four  years,  and  serve  without  compensation. 
The  Board  must  submit  an  annual  report  as  to  their  own  doings,  and 
the  progress  and  condition  of  the  seminary. 

The  Normal  School  was  located  permanently  in  New  Britain,  on  the 
1st  of  February,  1850,  after  full  consideration  of  the  claims  and  offers 
of  other  towns,  on  account  of  the  central  position  of  the  town  in  the 
state,  and  its  accessibility  from  every  section  by  railroad;  and  also 
in  consideration  of  the  liberal  offer  on  the  part  of  its  citizens,  to  pro- 
vide a  suitable  building,  apparatus,  and  library,  to  the  value  of  $16,000, 
for  the  use  of  the  Normal  School,  and  to  place  all  the  schools  of  the 
village  under  the  management  of  the  Principal  of  the  Normal  School, 
as  Schools  of  Practice. 

The  building  provided  for  the  accommodation  of  the  Normal  School, 
and  the  Schools  of  Practice,  when  completed,  will  contain  three  large 
study-halls,  with  nine  class-rooms  attached,  a  hall  for  lectures  and 
exhibitions,  a  laboratory  for  chemical  and  philosophical  experiments, 
an  office  for  the  Principal  and  trustees,  a  room  for  the  library,  and 
suitable  accommodations  for  apparatus,  clothes,  furnaces,  fuel,  &c.  The 
entire  building  will  be  fitted  up  and  furnished  in  the  most  substantial 
manner,  and  with  special  reference  to  the  health,  comfort  and  success- 
ful labor  of  pupils  and  teachers.  In  addition  to  the  Normal  School 
building,  there  are  three  houses  located  in  different  parts  of  the 
village,  for  the  accommodation  of  the  primary  schools  belonging  to  the 
Schools  of  Practice. 

The  immediate  charge  of  the  Normal  School,  and  Schools  of  Prac- 
tice, is  committed  to  Rev.  T.  D.  P.  Stone,  Associate  Principal,  to  whom 
all  communications  relating  to  the  schools,  can  be  addressed. 

The  school  was  opened  for  the  reception  of  pupils,  on  Wednesday, 
the  15th  of  May,  1850,  and  the  first  term  closed  on  Tuesday,  October  1st. 
The  number  of  pupils  in  attendance  during  the  term,  was  sixty-seven; 
thirty  males,  and  thirty-seven  females. 


58  FIBST  ANNUAL  CIRCULAR. 

The  second  term  will  commence  on  Wednesday,  the  4th  of  December, 
1850,  and  continue  till  the  third  Wednesday  in  April,  1851,  divided 
into  two  sessions  as  given  below. 

TERMS  AND  VACATIONS. — The  year  is  divided  into  two  terms,  Summer 
and  Winter,  each  term  consisting  of  two  sessions. 

The  first  session  of  the  winter  term  commences  on  the  first  Wednes- 
day of  December,  and  continues  fourteen  weeks.  The  second  session 
of  the  winter  term  commences  on  the  third  Wednesday  of  March,  and 
continues  six  weeks. 

The  first  session  of  the  summer  term  commences  on  the  third  Wed- 
nesday of  May,  and  continues  twelve  weeks.  The  second  session  of  the 
summer  term  commences  on  the  third  Wednesday  of  August,  and  con- 
tinues six  weeks. 

To  accommodate  pupils  already  engaged  in  teaching,  the  short  ses- 
sion of  each  term  will,  as  far  as  shall  be  found  practicable,  be  devoted 
to  a  review  of  the  studies  pursued  in  the  district  schools  in  the  season 
of  the  year  immediately  following,  and  to  a  course  of  familiar  lectures 
on  the  classification,  instruction  and  discipline  of  such  schools. 

ADMISSION  OF  PUPILS. — The  highest  number  of  pupils  which  can  be 
received  in  any  one  term,  is  two  hundred  and  twenty. 

Each  school  society  is  entitled  to  have  one  pupil  in  the  school;  and 
no  society  can  have  more  than  one  in  any  term,  so  long  as  there  are 
applicants  from  any  society,  at  the  time  unrepresented.  Until  the 
whole  number  of  pupils  in  actual  attendance  shall  reach  the  highest 
number  fixed  by  law,  the  Principal  is  authorized  to  receive  all  appli- 
cants who  may  present  themselves,  duly  recommended  by  the  visitors 
of  any  school  society. 

Any  person,  either  male  or  female,  may  apply  to  the  school  visitors 
of  any  school  society  for  admission  to  the  school,  who  will  make  a 
written  declaration,  that  their  object  in  so  applying  is  to  qualify  him- 
self (or  herself)  for  the  employment  of  a  common  school  teacher,  and 
that  it  is  his  (or  her)  intention  to  engage  in  that  employment,  in  this 
state. 

The  school  visitors  are  authorized  to  forward  to  the  Superintendent 
of  Common  Schools,  in  any  year,  the  names  of  four  persons,  two  of 
each  sex,  who  shall  have  applied  as  above,  for  admission  to  the  school, 
and  who  shall  have  been  found  on  examination  by  them,  "possessed 
of  the  qualifications  required  of  teachers  of  common  schools  in  this 
state,"  and  whom  they  "shall  recommend  to  the  trustees  as  suitable 
persons,  by  their  age,  character,  talents,  and  attainments,  to  be  received 
as  pupils  in  the  Normal  School." 

Applicants  duly  recommended  by  the  school  visitors,  can  forward 
their  certificate  directly  to  the  Associate  Principal  of  the  Normal 
School  at  New  Britain,  who  will  inform  them  of  the  time  when  they 
must  report  themselves  to  be  admitted  to  any  vacant  places  in  the 
school. 

Persons  duly  recommended,  and  informed  of  their  admission,  must 
report  themselves  within  the  first  week  of  the  term  for  which  they  are 
admitted,  or  their  places  will  be  considered  as  vacated. 

Any  persons,  once  regularly  admitted  to  the  Normal  School,  can 
remain  connected  with  the  same,  for  three  years,  and  will  not  lose 
their  places,  by  temporary  absence  in  teaching  common  schools  in  the 
state — such  experience,  in  connection  with  the  instruction  of  the  Insti- 
tution, being  considered  a  desirable  part  of  a  teacher's  training. 


FIB8T  ANNUAL  CIRCULAR.  59 

STUDIES. — The  course  of  Instruction  will  embrace: — 1.  A  thorough 
review  of  the  studies  pursued  in  the  lowest  grade  of  common  schools. 

2.  An  acquaintance  with  such  studies  as  are  embraced  in  the  highest 
grade  of  common  schools,  authorized  by  law,  and  which  will  render 
the  teaching  of  the  elementary  branch  more  thorough  and  interesting. 

3.  The  art   of   teaching  and   its   methods,   including   the   history   and 
progress  of  education,  the  philosophy  of  teaching  and  discipline,  as 
drawn  from  the  nature  of  the  juvenile  mind,  and  the  application  of 
those  principles  under  the  ordinary  conditions  of  our  common  schools. 

The  members  of  the  school  will  be  arranged  in  three  classes — Junior, 
Middle  and  Senior.  All  pupils,  on  being  admitted  to  the  school,  will 
be  ranked  in  the  Junior  Class,  until  their  familiarity  with  the  studies 
of  the  lowest  grade  of  common  schools  have  been  satisfactorily  tested. 
The  Middle  Class  will  embrace  those  who  are  pursuing  the  branches 
usually  taught  in  Public  High  Schools.  The  Senior  Class  will  comprise 
those  who  are  familiar  with  the  studies  of  the  Junior  and  Middle  Clas- 
ses, or  who  are  possessed  of  an  amount  of  experience  in  active  and 
successful  teaching,  which  can  be  regarded  as  a  practical  equivalent. 
All  the  studies  of  the  school  will  be  conducted  in  reference  to  their  be- 
ing taught  again  in  common  schools. 

PRACTICE  IN  THE  ART  OF  TEACHING  AND  GOVERNING  SCHOOLS. — The 
several  schools  of  the  First  School  District,  comprising  the  village  of 
New  Britain,  are  placed  by  a  vote  of  the  District,  under  the  instruction 
and  discipline  of  the  Associate  Principal,  as  Model  Schools,  and  Schools 
of  Practice,  for  the  Normal  School.  These  schools  embrace  about  four 
hundred  children,  and  are  classified  into  three  Primary,  one  Inter- 
mediate, and  one  High  School.  The  course  of  instruction  embraces  all 
the  studies  pursued  in  any  grade  of  common  schools  in  Connecticut. 
The  instruction  of  these  schools  will  be  given  by  pupils  of  the  Normal 
School,  under  the  constant  oversight  of  the  Associate  Principal  and 
Professors. 

TEXT  BOOKS. — A  Library  of  the  best  text  books,  in  the  various  stu- 
dies pursued  in  the  schools,  is  commenced,  and  already  numbers  up- 
ward of  four  thousand  volumes.  Pupils  are  supplied  with  text  books 
in  such  studies  as  they  may  be  engaged,  at  a  charge,  barely  sufficient 
to  keep  the  books  in  good  condition,  and  supply  such  as  may  be  injured 
or  lost.  Arrangements  have  also  been  made  to  furnish  teachers  who 
wish  to  own  a  set  of  text  books  at  the  publishers'  lowest  wholesale 
prices. 

APPARATUS. — The  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  is  appropriated  for  the 
purchase  of  apparatus,  which  will  be  procured  from  time  to  time,  as 
the  wants  of  the  school  may  require.  As  far  as  practicable,  such 
articles  of  apparatus  will  be  used  in  the  class-rooms  of  the  Normal 
School,  as  can  be  readily  made  by  teachers  themselves,  or  conveniently 
procured  at  low  prices,  and  be  made  useful  in  the  instruction  of  District 
Schools. 

LIBRARY. — The  school  is  already  furnished  with  the  best  works  on 
the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Education,  which  the  Normal  pupils  are 
expected  to  read,  and  on  several  of  which  they  are  examined.  The 
library  will  be  supplied  with  Encyclopedias,  Dictionaries,  and  other 
books  of  reference,  to  which  free  access  will  be  given  to  members  of 
the  school. 

BOARD. — Normal  pupils  must  board  and  lodge  in  such  families,  and 
under  such  regulations,  as  are  approved  by  the  Associate  Principal. 

The  price  of  board,  including  room,  fuel,  lights  and  washing,  in 
private  families,  ranges  from  $2.00  to  $2.50  per  week.  Persons,  ex- 


60  FIRST   ANNUAL   CIRCULAR. 

pecting  to  join  the  school,  should  signify  their  intention  to  the  Associ- 
ate Principal,  as  early  as  practicable,  before  the  commencement  of  a 
term,  that  there  may  be  no  disappointment  in  the  place  and  price  of 
board. 

DISCIPLINE. — The  discipline  of  the  institution  is  committed  to  the 
Associate  Principal,  who  is  authorized  to  secure  the  highest  point  of 
order  and  behavior  by  all  suitable  means,  even  to  a  temporary  sus- 
pension of  a  pupil  from  the  schools.  The  age  of  the  pupils,  the  objects 
which  bring  them  to  a  Normal  School,  and  the  spirit  of  the  institution 
itself,  will,  it  is  believed,  dispense  with  the  necessity  of  a  code  of 
rules.  The  members  are  expected  to  exemplify  in  their  own  conduct, 
the  order,  punctuality,  and  neatness  of  good  scholars,  and  exhibit  in 
all  their  relations,  Christian  courtesy,  kindness  and  fidelity. 

EXAMINATION  AND  INSPECTION. — The  school  will  be  visited  each  term 
by  a  committee  of  the  trustees,  who  will  report  the  results  of  their 
examination  to  the  Board. 

There  will  be  an  examination  at  the  close  of  each  term,  before  the 
whole  Board,  and  at  the  close  of  the  summer  term,  the  examination 
will  be  public,  and,  will  be  followed  by  an  exhibition. 

The  school  is  at  all  times  open  to  inspection,  and  school  visitors, 
teachers,  and  the  friends  of  education  generally  in  the  state,  are 
cordially  invited  to  visit  it  at  their  convenience. 

DIPLOMA. — The  time  required  to  complete  the  course  of  instruction 
and  practice,  which  shall  be  deemed  by  the  trustees  a  suitable  prepara- 
tion for  the  business  of  teaching,  and  entitle  any  applicant  to  a  Diploma 
of  the  Normal  School,  will  depend  on  the  age,  attainments,  mental 
discipline,  moral  character,  and  evidence  of  practical  tact  in  instruction 
and  government  of  each  applicant. 

No  diploma  will  be  given  to  any  person  who  does  not  rank  in  the 
Senior  Class,  and  has  not  given  evidence  of  possessing  some  practical 
talent  as  a  teacher  in  the  Schools  of  Practice,  or  in  the  District  Schools 
of  the  state. 

TEACHERS'  INSTITUTES. 

A  portion  of  the  vacation  in  the  spring  and  autumn,  will  be  devoted 
by  the  Officers  of  the  Normal  School,  to  Teachers'  Institutes,  or  Con- 
ventions, in  different  parts  of  the  state. 

At  least  two  of  these  Institutes  will  be  held  in  the  spring,  for  the 
special  benefit  of  teachers  who  may  be  engaged,  or  expect  to  teach 
district  schools  in  the  summer  following. 

COUNTY  TEACHERS'  ASSOCIATION. 

The  Principal,  or  one  of  the  Professors  of  the  Normal  School,  will 
attend,  on  invitation  and  due  notice,  at  every  regular  meeting  of  any 
County  Teachers'  Association,  which  shall  continue  in  session  through 
two  evenings  and  one  day,  and  assist  in  the  lectures,  discussions  and 
other  exercises  of  the  occasion. 

STATE  TEACHERS'  ASSOCIATION. 

The  State  Teachers'  Association  has  voted  to  hold  an  annual  meeting 
at  New  Britain  during  the  examination  at  the  close  of  the  summer 
term  of  the  Normal  School,  and  a  special  meeting  at  the  dedicatory 
exercises  at  the  completion  of  the  Normal  School  in  the  spring.  Ar- 
rangements will  be  made  to  entertain  all  members  of  the  Association, 
during  the  meeting. 

Adopted  at  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  held  at  New  Britain, 
Oct.  1,  1850. 

FRANCIS  GILLETTE,  President. 


HINTS  TO  SCHOOL  VISITORS 

RESPECTING 

APPLICANTS  FOR  ADMISSION  TO  THE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 


BY  the  First  Annual  Circular  of  the  Trustees  of  the  State  Normal 
School,  the  undersigned  are  directed,  for  the  present,  to  receive  as 
pupils,  all  persons  whom  the  visitors  of  any  School  Society  shall 
recommend  as  suitable  persons,  by  their  age,  character,  and  attain- 
ments, for  this  purpose.  Upon  your  recommendation  will  depend,  in  no 
small  degree,  the  character  and  usefulness  of  this  institution. 

We  beg  of  you,  therefore,  as  far  as  you  can,  to  send  us  candidates 
for  admission  to  the  Normal  School,  who  possess 

1.  Purity   and   strength   of   moral   and   religious   character, — an   ex- 
emplary life,  and  the  habit  of  self-government,  and  of  subjecting  their 
own  actions  to  the  test  of  moral  and  religious  principle. 

2.  Good  health, — a  vigorous  and  buoyant  constitution,  and  a  fund  of 
lively,  cheerful  spirits.     The  business  of  teaching  demands  liveliness 
and  activity  both  of  mind  and  body. 

3.  Good  manners, — and  by  this,  we  mean  those  manners  which  are 
dedicated  by  the  spirit  of  our  Saviour's  Golden  Rule,  of  doing  unto 
others  as  we  would  that  others  should  do  unto  us, — in  manner  as  well 
as  in  matter. 

4.  A  love  of,  and  sympathy  with,  children. 

5.  A  competent  share  of  talent  and  information, — such  as  the  law 
(Section  22)  demands  of  every  teacher,  and  which  you  are  required  by 
the  Act  establishing  this  School,  to  ascertain  by  actual  examination. 
The   proposed   course  of   instruction   in   the   Normal    School   can   not 
create,  it  can  only  improve,  the  talent  and  information  of  its  pupil- 
teachers. 

6.  A  native  tact  and  talent  for  teaching  and  governing  others.     No 
amount  of  instruction  and  practice  can  supply  a  deficiency  in  these 
respects. 

7.  A  love  for  the  occupations  of  the  school-room,  and  a  desire  to 
engage  in  the  business  of  teaching  for  life. 

8.  The  Common  School  spirit — if  need  be,  a  martyr  spirit,  to  live  and 
die,  for  the  more  thorough,  complete  and  practical  education  of  all  the 
children  of  the  State  in  the  Common  Schools — to  be  made,  by  their 
exertions,  in  co-operation  with  parents  and  school  officers,  good  enough 
for  the  best,  and  cheap  enough  for  the  poorest. 

9.  Some  experience  as  teachers.     Even  a  short  experience  will  serve 
to  develope,  if  they  possess  them,  the  germs  of  the  above  qualities  and 
qualifications,  and  will  make  even  a  brief  course  of  instruction  in  the 
Normal  School  highly  profitable. 

HENRY  BARNARD,  Principal  of  State  Normal  School. 
T.  D.  P.  STONE,  Associate  Principal. 


62  TEACHERS'    ASSOCIATIONS. 

EXTRACT  FROM    SECTION   22,   CHAPTER   II,   OF  THE   STATUTES  OF   CONNECTICUT. 

"The  Board  of  Visitors  shall  themselves,  or  by  a  Committee  by  them 
appointed  for  that  purpose,  examine  all  candidates  for  teachers  in  the 
Common  Schools  of  [each]  society,  and  shall  give  to  those  persons 
with  whose  moral  character,  literary  attainments,  and  ability  to  teach, 
they  are  satisfied,  a  certificate,  setting  forth  the  branches  he  or  she  is 
found  capable  of  teaching;  provided  that  no  certificate  shall  be  given 
to  any  person,  not  found  qualified  to  teach  reading,  writing,  arith- 
metic, and  grammar  thoroughly,  and  the  rudiments  of  geography  and 
history." 

TEACHERS'  INSTITUTES. 

THE  earliest  of  the  class  of  meetings  now  known  as  Teachers'  Insti- 
tutes in  Connecticut,  was  held  at  Hartford  in  1839,  and  continued  in 
session  four  weeks.  A  similar  meeting  for  the  benefit  of  female 
teachers  was  held  in  the  spring  of  1840.  In  1846  a  convention  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  teachers  assembled  in  Hartford,  and  continued  in 
session  five  days.  In  1847  the  Legislature  made  provision  for  holding 
two  meetings  of  this  kind,  of  one  week  each,  in  each  county  of  the 
State;  and  by  the  act  of  1849,  it  is  made  the  duty  of  the  Superintendent 
"to  hold  at  one  convenient  place  in  each  county  of  the  State,  in  the 
months  of  September,  October,  or  November  annually,  schools  or  con- 
ventions of  teachers,  for  the  purpose  of  instructing  in  the  best  modes 
of  governing  and  teaching  our  common  schools,  and  to  employ  one 
suitable  person  to  assist  him  at  each  of  said  schools." 

EDUCATIONAL    PERIODICALS    AND    PUBLICATIONS. 

The  State  makes  no  provision  for  the  publication  of  an  educational 
paper.  In  1838,  the  Connecticut  Common  School  Journal  was  com- 
menced by  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Common 
Schools,  and  continued  by  him  till  the  abolition  of  the  Board  in  1842. 
In  1846,  the  Connecticut  School  Manual  was  commenced  by  Rev.  Merril 
Richardson,  and  continued  for  two  years,  when  it  was  suspended  for 
the  want  of  patronage.  In  1850,  the  Superintendent,  in  pursuance  of 
a  plan  set  forth  in  his  report  to  the  Legislature  of  that  year,  was 
authorized  to  prepare  and  issue  a  series  of  publications  on  the  most 
important  topics  connected  with  the  condition  and  improvement  of 
common  schools.  The  series  will  embrace,  1.  Legislation  of  Connecticut 
respecting  Common  Schools.  2.  Condition  of  the  Common  Schools  in 
each  town  and  district.  3.  School  houses.  4.  Normal  Schools  and 
other  agencies  for  the  professional  education  of  teachers.  5.  Attend- 
ance and  classification  of  children  at  school.  6.  System  of  organiza- 
tion for  common  schools  in  cities  and  large  districts.  7.  Means  of 
popular  education  in  manufacturing  villages.  8.  Course  of  instruction 
in  a  small  country  district  school.  9.  Text  Book  and  Apparatus. 
10.  School  Inspection.  11.  Means  and  mode  of  supporting  schools. 
12.  Parental  and  public  interest  in  common  schools.  13.  Public  schools 
in  other  states  and  countries. 

PUBLIC   ADDRESSES  AND    SCHOOL   INSPECTION. 

The  Legislature  in  1850  authorized  the  Superintendent  to  secure  the 
delivery  of  at  least  one  address  in  a  public  meeting  of  parents,  school 
officers,  and  teachers  in  each  School  Society,  on  topics  connected  with 
the  improvement  of  the  common  schools  in  respect  to  organization, 
administration,  instruction,  and  discipline.  Under  this  power,  the 
superintendent  is  aiming  to  illustrate  some  of  the  advantages  of  a 
system  of  county  inspection  and  reports. 


TEACHERS'  ASSOCIATIONS.  63 

TEACHERS'  ASSOCIATIONS. 

The  first  association  of  teachers  in  Connecticut,  and  as  far  as  we 
have  any  knowledge,  in  the  United  States,  was  formed  at  Middletown, 
in  1798,  under  the  name  of  the  "School  Association  for  Middlesex 
County."  Its  objects,  as  set  forth  in  a  printed  circular  in  1799,  were 
"to  promote  a  systematic  course  of  instruction,  and  elevate  the  char- 
acter and  qualifications  of  teachers." 

A  State  Teachers'  Association  was  formed  in  1847,  and  County 
Associations  of  teachers  exist  in  the  counties  of  Fairfield,  Windhaw, 
New-Haven,  New-London,  and  Litchfield.  The  State  does  not  make 
any  appropriation  in  aid  of  the  objects  of  these  associations,  and  the 
attendance  of  teachers  is  not  encouraged  by  local  school  officers. 


MASSACHUSETTS 


To  James  G.  Carter,  of  Lancaster,  belongs  the  credit  of 
having  first  called  public  attention  in  Massachusetts,  to  the 
necessity  and  advantages  of  an  institution  devoted  exclus- 
ively to  the  professional  training  of  teachers,  in  a  series  of 
articles  in  the  Boston  Patriot,  with  the  signature  of  "Frank- 
lin," in  the  winter  of  1824-5.  After  fifteen  years  of  con- 
stant appeals  to  the  people  and  the  Legislature,  by  himself 
and  others,  through  the  press  and  in  every  form  of  public 
address,  report,  and  memorial,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  his  plan  realized  by  two  brief  Resolves  of  the  Legis- 
lature, passed  on  the  19th  of  April,  1838.  For  this  action  of 
the  Legislature,  the  gratitude  of  the  friends  of  education  in 
Massachusetts,  and  in  the  whole  country,  are  specially  due 
to  the  munificence  of  the  late  Edmund  D wight,  of  Boston, 
as  set  forth  in  the  Report  and  Resolves  on  the  following 
page. 

We  intended  to  preface  this  account  of  the  Massachusetts 
State  Normal  Schools,  with  a  sketch,  mainly  documentary, 
of  the  efforts  put  forth  by  many  individuals, — in  public 
stations  and  in  private  life — in  the  Legislature  and  out  of  it 
— in  conventions  and  associations  of  teachers  and  school 
officers — through  the  periodical  press,  from  the  country 
newspaper  to  the  quarterly  review — and  in  every  form  of 
public  address  and  report,  whether  prepared  for  the  district 
school  meeting  or  for  halls  of  legislation, — for  the  profes- 
sional improvement  of  teachers  in  all  departments.  With 
much  diligence,  and  by  an  extensive  correspondence,  we 
have  collected  the  writings  and  notices  of  the  labors  of  Car- 
ter, Lincoln,  Russell,  Woodbridge,  Alcott,  Burnside,  Baily, 
Emerson,  Brooks,  Morton  Everett,  Rantoul,  Channing,  Mann, 
Stowe,  Humphrey,  and  others;  with  an  account  of  the  ex- 
periment of  the  Teachers'  Seminary  at  Andover,  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction,  the  Essex 
County  Teachers'  Association,  and  the  State  Teachers'  As- 
sociation, the  Board  of  Education,  the  Journal  and  Annals 
of  Education,  the  Common  School  Journal,  the  Massachus- 
etts Teacher,  the  Annual  Reports  of  Town  School  Commit- 
tees, and  other  institutions  and  agencies  by  which  the  pub- 
lic mind  of  Massachusetts  has  been  enlightened  on  the  ne- 

E 


66  MASSACHUSETTS    STATE    NOBMAL    SCHOOLS. 

cessity  and  means  of  common  school  improvement,  beyond 
any  other  state.  But  ill  health,  and  other  causes,  forbid  the 
completion  of  my  original  plan  at  this  time. 

STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOLS  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

The  following  brief  account  of  the  history  and  organiza- 
tion of  the  State  Normal  Schools,  in  Massachusetts,  is  cop- 
ied from  the  "Tenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Education." 

"In  a  communication  made  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion to  the  Legislature,  dated  March  12,  1838,  it  was  stated  that  private 
munificence  had  placed  at  his  disposal  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars, 
to  be  expended,  under  the  direction  of  the  Board  of  Education,  for 
qualifying  teachers  for  our  Common  Schools,  on  condition  that  the 
Legislature  would  place  in  the  hands  of  the  Board  an  equal  sum,  to  be 
expended  for  the  same  purpose. 

On  the  19th  of  April,  of  the  same  year,  resolves  were  passed,  accept- 
ing the  proposition,  and  authorizing  the  Governor,  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Council,  to  draw  his  warrant  upon  the  treasurer 
for  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  to  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Board  for  the  purpose  specified  in  the  original  communication." 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  Resolve  and  of  the  Report 
of  the  Committee  on  the  subject : 

"The  Joint  Committee,  to  whom  was  referred  the  communication  of 
the  Hon.  Horace  Mann,  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education,  relative 
to  a  fund  for  the  promotion  of  the  cause  of  popular  education  in  this 
Commonwealth,  and  also  the  memorial  of  the  Nantucket  County 
Association  for  the  promotion  of  education,  and  the  improvement  of 
schools,  and  also  the  petition  and  memorial  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
town  of  Nantucket,  on  the  same  subject,  having  duly  considered  the 
matter  therein  embraced,  respectfully  report, 

That  the  highest  interest  in  Massachusetts  is,  and  will  always  con- 
tinue to  be,  the  just  and  equal  instruction  of  all  her  citizens,  so  far 
as  the  circumstances  of  each  individual  will  permit  to  be  imparted; 
that  her  chief  glory,  for  two  hundred  years,  has  been  the  extent  to 
which  this  instruction  was  diffused,  the  result  of  the  provident  legis- 
lation, to  promote  the  common  cause,  and  secure  the  perpetuity  of 
the  common  interest;  that  for  many  years  a  well-grounded  apprehen- 
sion has  been  entertained,  of  the  neglect  of  our  common  town  schools 
by  large  portions  of  our  community,  and  of  the  comparative  degrada- 
tion to  which  these  institutions  might  fall  from  such  neglect;  that  the 
friends  of  universal  education  have  long  looked  to  the  Legislature  for 
the  establishment  of  one  or  more  seminaries  devoted  to  the  purpose 
of  supplying  qualified  teachers,  for  the  town  and  district  schools,  by 
whose  action  alone  other  judicious  provisions  of  the  law  could  be 
carried  into  full  effect;  that  at  various  times,  the  deliberation  of  both 
branches  of  the  General  Court  has  been  bestowed  upon  this,  among 
other  subjects,  most  intimately  relating  to  the  benefit  of  the  rising 
generation  and  of  all  generations  to  come,  particularly  when  the  pro- 
vision for  instruction  of  school  teachers  was  specially  urged  on  their 
consideration,  in  1827,  by  the  message  of  the  Governor,  and  a  report 
thereupon,  accompanied  by  a  bill,  was  submitted  by  the  chairman,  now 
a  member  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  following  out  to  their 
fair  conclusions,  the  suggestion  of  the  Executive,  and  the  forcible 
essays  of  a  distinguished  advocate  of  this  institution  at  great  length, 


MASSACHUSETTS    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOLS.  67 

published  and  widely  promulgated;  that  although  much  has  been 
done  within  two  or  three  years,  for  the  encouragement  of  our  town 
schools  by  positive  enactment,  and  more  by  the  liberal  spirit,  newly 
awakened  in  our  several  communities,  yet  the  number  of  competent 
teachers  is  found,  by  universal  experience,  so  far  inadequate  to  supply 
the  demand  for  them,  as  to  be  the  principal  obstacle  to  improvement, 
and  the  greatest  deficiency  of  our  republic;  that  we  can  hardly  ex- 
pect, as  in  the  memorials  from  Nantucket  is  suggested,  to  remove 
this  deficiency  even  in  a  partial  degree,  much  less  to  realize  the  com- 
pletion of  the  felicitous  system  of  our  free  schools,  without  adopting 
means  for  more  uniform  modes  of  tuition  and  government  in  them, 
without  better  observing  the  rules  of  prudence  in  the  selection  of  our 
common  books,  the  unlimited  diversity  of  which  is  complained  of 
throughout  the  State,  and  that  these  benefits  may  reasonably  be  ex- 
pected to  follow  from  no  other  course  than  a  well-devised  scheme  in 
full  operation,  for  the  education  of  teachers;  that  the  announcement, 
in  the  communication  recently  received  from  the  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  of  that  private  munificence,  which  offers  $10,000 
to  this  Commonwealth,  for  removal  of  this  general  want,  at  least  in 
the  adoption  of  initiatory  measures  of  remedy,  is  received  by  us  with 
peculiar  pleasure,  and,  in  order  that  the  General  Court  may  con- 
summate this  good,  by  carrying  forward  the  benevolent  object  of  the 
unknown  benefactor,  the  committee  conclude,  with  recommending  the 
passage  of  the  subjoined  resolutions. 

All  which  is  respectfully  submitted, 

JAMES  SAVAGE,  per  order. 

RESOLVES 

RELATIVE  TO  QUALIFYING  TEACHERS   FOR  COMMON   SCHOOLS. 

Whereas,  by  letter  from  the  Honorable  Horace  Mann,  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Education,  addressed,  on  the  12th  March  current,  to  the 
President  of  the  Senate,  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, it  appears,  that  private  munificence  has  placed  at  his  disposal 
the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  to  promote  the  cause  of  popular  edu- 
cation in  Massachusetts,  on  condition  that  the  Commonwealth  will  con- 
tribute from  unappropriated  funds,  the  same  amount  in  aid  of  the 
same  cause,  the  two  sums  to  be  drawn  upon  equally  from  time  to 
time,  as  needed,  and  to  be  disbursed  under  the  direction  of  the  Board 
of  Education  in  qualifying  teachers  for  our  Common  Schools;  there- 
fore, 

Resolved,  That  his  Excellency,  the  Governor,  be,  and  he  is  hereby 
authorized  and  requested,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Council,  to  draw  his  warrant  upon  the  Treasurer  of  the  Common- 
wealth in  favor  of  the  Board  of  Education,  for  the  sum  of  $10,000,  in 
such  installments  and  at  such  times,  as  said  Board  may  request: 
provided,  said  Board,  in  their  request,  shall  certify,  that  the  Secretary 
of  said  Board  has  placed  at  their  disposal  an  amount  equal  to  that 
for  which  such  application  may  by  them  be  made;  both  sums  to  be  ex- 
pended, under  the  direction  of  said  Board,  in  qualifying  teachers  for 
the  Common  Schools  in  Massachusetts. 

Resolved,  That  the  Board  of  Education  shall  render  an  annual 
account  of  the  manner  in  which  said  moneys  have  been  by  them 
expended." 

"The  Board,  after  mature  deliberation,  decided  to  establish  three 
Normal  Schools;  one  for  the  north-eastern,  one  for  the  south-eastern, 
and  one  for  the  western  part  of  the  State.  Accordingly,  one  was 
opened  at  Lexington,  in  the  county  of  Middlesex,  on  the  3d  day  of 


68  MASSACHUSETTS    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOLS. 

July,  1839.    This  school,  having  outgrown  its  accommodations  at  Lex- 
ington, was  removed  to  West  Newton,  in  the  same  county,  in  Sept., 

1844,  where  it  now  occupies  a  commodious  building. 

The  second  Normal  School  was  opened  at  Barre,  in  the  county  of 
Worcester,  on  the  4th  day  of  September,  1839.  This  school  has  since 
been  removed  to  Westfield,  in  the  county  of  Hampden,  both  on  account 
of  the  insufficiency  of  the  accommodations  at  Barre,  and  because  the 
latter  place  is  situated  east  of  the  centre  of  population  of  the  western 
counties. 

The  third  school  was  opened  at  Bridgewater,  on  the  9th  day  of  Sept., 
1840,  and  is  permanently  located  at  that  place. 

For  the  two  last-named  schools,  there  had  been,  from  the  beginning, 
very  inadequate  school-room  accommodations.  In  the  winter  of  1845, 
a  memorial,  on  behalf  of  certain  friends  of  education  in  the  city  of 
Boston  and  its  vicinity,  was  presented  to  the  Legislature,  offering  the 
sum  of  five  thousand  dollars,  to  be  obtained  by  private  subscriptions, 
on  condition  that  the  Legislature  would  give  an  equal  sum,  for  the 
purpose  of  erecting  two  Normal  School-houses;  one  for  the  school  at 
Westfield  and  one  for  that  at  Bridgewater.  By  resolves  of  March  20, 

1845,  the  proposition  of  the  memorialists  was  accepted  and  the  grant 
made;    and  by   the   same   resolves   it  was   ordered,   'that  the   schools 
heretofore  known  as  Normal  Schools,  shall  be  hereafter  designated  as 
State  Normal  Schools.' 

The  school  at  West  Newton  is  appropriated  exclusively  to  females; 
those  at  Bridgewater  and  Westfield  admit  both  sexes. 

Among  the  standing  regulations  adopted  by  the  Board,  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  State  Normal  Schools,  are  the  following — most  of 
which  were  adopted  in  the  beginning,  and  have  been  constantly  in 
force;  only  a  few  modifications,  and  those  very  slight  ones,  having 
since  been  introduced: 

ADMISSION.  As  a  prerequisite  to  admission,  candidates  must  declare 
it  to  be  their  intention  to  qualify  themselves  to  become  school  teachers. 
If  they  belong  to  the  State,  or  have  an  intention  and  a  reasonable 
expectation  of  keeping  school  in  the  State,  tuition  is  gratuitous.  Other- 
wise, a  tuition-fee  is  charged,  which  is  intended  to  be  about  the  same  as 
is  usually  charged  at  good  academies  in  the  same  neighborhood.  If 
pupils,  after  having  completed  a  course  of  study  at  the  State  Normal 
Schools,  immediately  engage  in  school  keeping,  but  leave  the  State, 
or  enter  a  private  school  or  an  academy,  they  are  considered  as  having 
waived  the  privilege  growing  out  of  their  declared  intention  to  keep  a 
Common  School  in  Massachusetts,  and  are  held  bound  in  honor  to  pay 
a  tuition-fee  for  their  instruction. 

If  males,  pupils  must  have  attained  the  age  of  seventeen  years 
complete,  and  of  sixteen,  if  females;  and  they  must  be  free  from  any 
disease  or  infirmity,  which  would  unfit  them  for  the  office  of  school 
teachers. 

They  must  undergo  an  examination,  and  prove  themselves  to  be  well 
versed  in  orthography,  reading,  writing,  English  grammar,  geography 
and  arithmetic. 

They  must  furnish  satisfactory  evidence  of  good  intellectual  capacity 
and  of  high  moral  character  and  principles. 

Examinations  for  admission  take  place  at  the  commencement  of  each 
term,  of  which  there  are  three  in  a  year. 

TERM  OF  STUDY.  At  West  Newton  and  Bridgewater,  the  minimum 
of  the  term  of  study  is  one  year,  and  this  must  be  in  consecutive 
terms  of  the  schools.  In  regard  to  the  school  at  Westfield,  owing  to  the 


MASSACHUSETTS    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOLS.  69 

unwillingness  of  the  pupils  in  that  section  of  the  State  to  remain  at 
the  school,  even  for  so  short  a  time  as  one  year,  the  rule  requiring  a 
year's  residence  has  been  from  time  to  time  suspended.  It  is  found  to 
be  universally  true,  that  those  applicants  whose  qualifications  are  best, 
are  desirous  to  remain  at  the  school  the  longest. 

COURSE  OF  STUDY.  The  studies  first  to  be  attended  to  in  the  State 
Normal  Schools,  are  those  which  the  law  requires  to  be  taught  in  the 
district  schools,  namely,  orthography,  reading,  writing,  English,  gram- 
mar, geography  and  arithmetic.  When  these  are  mastered,  those  of  a 
higher  order  will  be  progressively  taken. 

For  those  who  wish  to  remain  at  the  school  more  than  one  year,  and 
for  all  belonging  to  the  school,  so  far  as  their  previous  attainments  will 
permit,  the  following  course  is  arranged: 

1.  Orthography,  reading,  grammar,  composition,  rhetoric  and  logic. 

2.  Writing  and  drawing. 

3.  Arithmetic,  mental  and  written,  algebra,  geometry,  book-keeping, 
navigation,  surveying. 

4.  Geography,  ancient  and  modern,  with  chronology,  statistics  and 
general  history. 

5.  Human  Physiology,  and  hygiene  or  the  Laws  of  Health. 

6.  Mental  Philosophy. 

7.  Music. 

8.  Constitution   and   History   of   Massachusetts   and   of   the   United 
States. 

9.  Natural  Philosophy  and  Astronomy. 

10.  Natural  History. 

11.  The  principles  of  piety  and  morality,  common  to  all  sects  of 
Christians. 

12.  THE  SCIENCE  AND  ABT  OF  TEACHING  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  ALL  THE 
ABOVE  NAMED  STUDIES. 

RELIGIOUS  EXERCISES.  A  portion  of  the  Scriptures  shall  be  read 
daily,  in  every  State  Normal  School. 

VISITERS.  Each  Normal  School  is  under  the  immediate  inspection  of 
a  Board  of  Visiters,  who  are  in  all  cases  to  be  members  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  except  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  may  be  appointed 
as  one  of  the  visiters  of  each  school. 

The  Board  appoints  one  Principal  Instructor  for  each  school,  who 
is  responsible  for  its  government  and  instruction,  subject  to  the  rules 
of  the  Board,  and  the  supervision  of  the  Visiters.  The  Visiters  of  the 
respective  schools  appoint  the  assistant  instructors  thereof. 

To  each  Normal  School,  an  Experimental  or  Model  School  is  at- 
tached. This  School  is  under  the  control  of  the  Principal  of  the  Normal 
School.  The  pupils  of  the  Normal  School  assist  in  teaching  it.  Here, 
the  knowledge  which  they  acquire  in  the  science  of  teaching,  is  prac- 
tically applied.  The  art  is  made  to  grow  out  of  the  science,  instead  of 
being  empirical.  The  Principal  of  the  Normal  School  inspects  the 
Model  School  more  or  less,  daily.  He  observes  the  manner  in  which 
his  own  pupils  exemplify,  in  practice,  the  principles  he  has  taught 
them.  Sometimes,  all  the  pupils  of  the  Normal  School,  together  with 
the  Principal,  visit  the  Model  School  in  a  body,  to  observe  the  manner 
in  which  the  teachers  of  the  latter,  for  the  time  being,  conduct  the 
recitations  or  exercises.  Then,  returning  to  their  own  school-room,  in 
company  with  the  assistant  teachers  themselves,  who  have  been  the 
objects  of  inspection,  each  one  is  called  upon  to  deliver  his  views, 
whether  commendatory  or  otherwise,  respecting  the  manner  in  which 
the  work  has  been  performed.  At  this  amicable  exposition  of  merits 
and  defects,  the  Principal  of  the  Normal  School  presides.  After  all 


70  MASSACHUSETTS    STATE    NORMAL     SCHOOLS. 

others  have  presented  their  views,  he  delivers  his  own;  and  thus  his 
pupils,  at  the  threshold  of  their  practice,  have  an  opportunity  to  acquire 
confidence  in  a  good  cause,  of  which  they  might  otherwise  entertain 
doubts,  and  to  rectify  errors  which  otherwise  would  fossilize  into  habit. 

The  salaries  of  the  teachers  of  the  State  Normal  Schools  are  paid  by 
the  State." 

The  following  Rules  were  adopted  for  the  regulation  of  the  Normal 
Schools,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Education,  held  in  December, 
1849. 

1.  No  new  applicants  for  admission  to  the  Normal  Schools  shall  be 
received,  except  at  the  commencement  of  the  term. 

2.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  and  of  one  of  the 
visitors  to  be  present  on  the  first  day  of  the  term,  for  the  examination 
of  the  candidates  for  admission. 

3.  There  shall  be  two  periods  for  the  admission  of  new  members, 
the  time  to  be  fixed  by  the  visitors  of  each  school. 

4.  Candidates  for  admission  at  the  West  Newton  Normal  School  must 
promise  to  remain  four  consecutive  terms;   and  at  the  other  Normal 
Schools,  three  consecutive  terms.     An  exception  may  be  made  in  the 
case  of  persons  of  more  than  ordinary  experience  and  attainments. 

5.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  principals  of  the  several  Normal  Schools 
to  make  a  report,  at  the  end  of  each  term,  to  the  visitors,  and  if,  in 
their  judgment,  any  do  not  promise  to  be  useful  as  teachers,  they 
shall  be  dismissed. 

6.  The  course  of  study  in  each  of  the  Normal  Schools  shall  begin 
with  a  review  of  the  studies  pursued   in   the  common  schools,  viz: 
reading,  writing,  orthography,  English  grammar,  mental  and  written 
arithmetic,  geography,  and  physiology. 

7.  The  attention  of  pupils,  in  the  Normal  Schools,  shall  be  directed, 
1.  To  a  thorough  review  of  elementary  studies;   2.  To  those  branches 
of  knowledge  which  may  be  considered  as  an  expansion  of  the  above- 
named   elementary   studies,   or   collateral   to   them;    3.  To   the   art   of 
teaching  and  its  modes. 

8.  The  advanced  studies  shall  be  equally  proportioned,  according  to 
the  following  distribution,  into  three  departments,  viz.:   1.  The  mathe- 
matical, including  algebra  through  quadratic  equations;   geometry,  to 
an  amount  equal  to  three  books  in  Euclid;  book-keeping;  and  survey- 
ing.    2.  The  philosophical,  including  natural   philosophy,   astronomy, 
moral  and  intellectual  philosophy,  natural  history,  particularly  that  of 
our  own  country,  and  so  much  of  chemistry  as  relates  to  the  atmos- 
phere,  the   waters,   and   the   growth   of   plants   and   animals.     3.  The 
literary,  including  the  critical  study  of  the  English  language,  both  in 
its  structure  and  history,  with  an  outline  of  the  history  of  English 
literature;    the  history  of  the  United   States,  with  such  a  survey  of 
general  history  as  may  be  a  suitable  preparation  for  it;  and  historical 
geography,  ancient  and  mediaeval,  so  far  as  is  necessary  to  understand 
general  history,  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  period  of  the  French 
Revolution. 

9.  "The  art  of  teaching  and  its  modes"  shall  include  instruction  on 
the  philosophy  of  teaching  and  discipline,  as  drawn  from  the  nature 
and  condition  of  the  juvenile  mind;  the  history  of  the  progress  of  the 
art,  and  the  application  of  it  to  our  system  of  education;  and  as  much 
exercise  in  teaching  under  constant  supervision,  toward  the  close  of 
the  course,  as  the  circumstances  and  interests  of  the  model  schools  will 
allow. 

10.  Members  of  the  Normal  Schools  may,  with  the  consent  of  the 
respective  boards  of  visitors,  remain  as  much  longer  than  the  period 
required,  as  they  may  desire. 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

AT 

WEST  NEWTON. 


THE  State  Normal  Schools,  of  which  there  are  three  in  Massachu- 
setts, are  designed  for  those  only  who  purpose  to  teach,  and  especially 
for  those  who  purpose  to  teach  in  the  common  schools.  The  school  at 
West  Newton  is  for  females. 

It  was  opened  at  Lexington,  July  3d,  1839,  with  the  examination  of 
three  pupils,  who  were  all  that  presented  themselves  as  candidates. 
At  the  close  of  the  first  term  it  numbered  twelve  pupils. 

The  school  continued  at  Lexington  five  years.  In  May,  1844,  having 
by  far  outgrown  its  accommodations,  it  was  removed  to  West  Newton, 
where  the  liberality  of  the  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.,  of  Boston,  had 
provided  for  it  by  the  purchase  of  a  building,  formerly  used  as  a 
private  academy,  which  he  generously  gave  to  the  Institution. 

The  whole  number  of  graduates  is  423,  nearly  all  of  whom  have  en- 
gaged in  teaching,  the  most  of  them  in  the  public  schools  of  this  state. 

CONDITIONS  OF  ENTRANCE. — 1.  The  applicant  must  be  at  least  sixteen 
years  old. 

2.  She  must  make  an  explicit  declaration  of  her  intention  to  become 
a  TEACHER. 

3.  She  must  produce  a  certificate  of  good  PHYSICAL,  INTELLECTUAL, 
and  MORAL  CHARACTER,  from  some  responsible  person.    It  is  exceedingly 
desirable  that  this  condition  be  strictly  complied  with  on  the  part  of 
those  who  present  candidates. 

4.  She  must  pass  a  satisfactory  examination  in  the  common  branches, 
viz: — Reading,  spelling  and  defining,  arithmetic,  grammar,  writing  and 
geography. 

5.  She  must  give  a  pledge  to  remain  in  the  school  at  least  four  con- 
secutive terms,  and  to   observe  faithfully  all  the  regulations  of   the 
Institution,  as  long  as  she  is  a  member  of  it. 

6.  All  candidates  for  admission  must  be  at  the  school-room  on  the 
morning  of  the  day  which  precedes  that  on  which  the  term  commences, 
at  half-past  eight  o'clock.    None  will  be  admitted  after  the  day  of  ex- 
amination. 

7.  Each  pupil,  at  entrance,  must  be  supplied  with  slate  and  pencil, 
blank  book,  Bible,  Worcester's  Comprehensive  Dictionary,  and  Morse's 
Geography.    Many  of  the  other  books  used  will  be  furnished  from  the 
library  of  the  school. 

STUDIES. — The  course  of  study  in  each  of  the  State  Normal  Schools 
begins  with  a  review  of  the  studies  pursued  in  the  Common  Schools, 
viz: — Reading,  writing,  orthography,  English  grammar,  mental  and 
written  arithmetic,  geography  and  physiology. 

The  attention  of  pupils  is  directed,  1st,  to  a  thorough  review  of  ele- 
mentary studies;  2d,  to  those  branches  of  knowledge  which  may  be 
considered  as  an  expansion  of  the  above-named  elementary  studies,  or 
collateral  to  them;  to  the  art  of  teaching  and  its  modes. 

The  advanced  studies  are  equally  proportioned,  according  to  the 
following  distribution,  into  three  departments,  viz: — 1.  The  mathe- 


72  WEST    NEWTON    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

matical,  including  algebra  through  quadratic  equations;  geometry,  to 
an  amount  equal  to  three  books  in  Euclid;  book-keeping  and  surveying. 
2.  The  philosophical,  including  natural  philosophy,  astronomy,  moral 
and  intellectual  philosophy,  natural  history,  particularly  that  of  our 
own  country,  and  so  much  of  chemistry  as  relates  to  the  atmosphere, 
the  waters,  and  the  growth  of  plants  and  animals.  3.  The  literary, 
including  the  critical  study  of  the  English  language,  both  in  its  struc- 
ture and  history,  with  an  outline  of  the  history  of  English  literature; 
the  history  of  the  United  States,  with  such  a  survey  of  general  history 
as  may  be  a  suitable  preparative  for  it;  and  historical  geography, 
ancient  and  mediaeval,  so  far  as  is  necessary  to  understand  general 
history,  from  the  earliest  time  to  the  period  of  the  French  Revolution. 

"The  art  of  teaching  and  its  modes,"  includes  instruction  as  to  the 
philosophy  of  teaching  and  discipline,  as  drawn  from  the  nature  and 
condition  of  the  juvenile  mind;  the  history  of  the  progress  of  the  art, 
and  the  application  of  it  to  our  system  of  education;  and  as  much 
exercise  in  teaching  under  constant  supervision,  toward  the  close  of 
the  course,  as  the  circumstances  and  interests  of  the  Model  schools  may 
allow. 

Members  of  the  higher  classes  give  teaching  exercises  before  the 
whole  school,  several  each  week.  Members  of  the  senior  class  spend 
three  weeks,  each,  in  the  public  grammar  school  of  District  No.  7, 
which  is  connected  with  the  institution  as  its  Model  department. 

Pupils  who  have  had  considerable  experience  in  teaching,  and  are 
otherwise  qualified  for  it,  will  be  allowed  to  enter  existing  classes. 

Pupils  who  may  desire  to  study  the  Latin  and  French  languages,  and 
to  prepare  themselves  to  instruct  in  those  branches  usually  taught  in 
High  Schools,  can  have  an  opportunity  to  do  so,  by  giving  a  pledge 
to  remain  in  the  school  for  a  term  of  three  years,  provided  the  number 
is  sufficient  to  warrant  the  forming  of  a  class. 

EXAMINATIONS. — The  school  is  visited  and  examined  by  the  Visiting 
Committee  of  the  Board  of  Education,  at  the  close  of  each  term;  and 
a  public  examination  is  held  whenever  a  class  graduates.  The  school 
is  open  to  visitors  at  all  times. 

LIBRARY  AND  APPARATUS. — A  well-selected  Library,  consisting  mostly 
of  works  on  education,  belongs  to  the  school,  and  also  a  well-assorted 
Apparatus,  for  the  illustration  of  principles  in  natural  philosophy, 
chemistry,  mathematics,  &c.  &c. 

TUITION. — For  those  who  purpose  to  teach  in  the  public  schools  of 
the  state,  tuition  is  free;  for  such  as  intend  to  teach  elsewhere,  it  is 
$10  per  term,  payable  at  entrance,  and  such  can  not  be  admitted  to 
the  exclusion  of  those  first  mentioned.  At  the  beginning  of  each  term, 
each  pupil  pays  to  the  Principal  $1,50,  to  meet  incidental  expenses. 

BOARD. — Board  may  be  had  in  good  families  at  from  $2  to  $2,50  per 
week,  including  washing  and  fuel.  Some  of  the  pupils  take  rooms  and 
board  themselves  at  a  lower  rate.  The  whole  annual  expense  is  about 
$100. 

TERMS  AND  VACATIONS. — There  are  three  terms  in  the  year.  The 
winter  term  commences  on  the  second  Wednesday  in  December,  and 
continues  fifteen  weeks.  The  summer  term  commences  on  the  second 
Wednesday  in  April,  and  continues  fifteen  weeks.  The  autumn  term 
commences  on  the  first  Wednesday  in  September,  and  continues  twelve 
weeks.  Between  the  summer  and  autumn  terms,  there  is  a  vacation 
of  six  weeks;  between  the  other  terms  a  vacation  of  two  weeks.  No 
session  is  held  on  the  week  of  the  anniversaries  in  Boston. 


WEST    NEWTON    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL.  73 

Pupils  who  reside  in  the  vicinity,  and  whose  friends  request  it,  have 
leave  to  go  home  on  Saturday  morning  and  stay  until  Monday  morning, 
provided  this  can  be  done  without  interference  with  school  duties. 

Pupils  are  not  permitted  to  board  at  such  a  distance  from  the  in- 
stitution, as  to  render  it  impracticable  for  them  to  be  present  during 
all  regular  exercises. 

STUDY  HOURS,  &c. — It  is  expected,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  the 
young  ladies  will  conform  to  the  general  order  and  usage  of  the 
families  in  which  they  reside.  Where  it  can  be  done  conveniently,  it 
is  desirable  that  they  should  breakfast  about  one  hour  after  rising, 
dine  at  a  quarter  past  two  o'clock,  and  sup  from  six  to  six  and  a  half 
o'clock. 

The  hours  for  rising,  studying,  &c.,  will  vary  somewhat  with  the 
season  of  the  year.  For  the  winter  and  autumn  terms,  the  pupils  will 
rise  at  six  o'clock,  and  study  one  hour,  either  before  or  after  breakfast, 
as  may  suit  the  custom  of  the  family.  In  the  summer  term,  they  will 
rise  at  five  o'clock  and  study  two  hours.  In  the  afternoon,  they  will 
study  from  four  till  five  and  a  half  o'clock.  Evening  study  hours  for 
the  winter  and  autumn  terms  commence  at  seven  o'clock,  and  continue 
two  hours,  with  a  short  recess;  for  the  summer  term,  evening  study 
hours  commence  at  eight  o'clock,  and  continue  one  hour. 

All  study  hours  are  to  be  spent  in  perfect  quietness.  At  all  seasons 
of  the  year  pupils  are  to  retire  at  ten  o'clock.  Every  light  must  be 
extinguished  at  half-past  ten,  at  the  utmost. 

It  is  expected  that  the  pupils  will  attend  public  worship  on  the 
Sabbath,  health,  weather,  and  walking  permitting;  preserve  order  and 
quiet  in  their  rooms,  and  throughout  the  house;  and  refrain  from 
every  thing  like  a  desecration  of  the  day. 

ORDER,  PUNCTUALITY  and  NEATNESS,  in  their  persons  and  in  their 
rooms,  and  a  kind  and  respectful  demeanor,  are  expected  of  all. 

It  is  expected  that  the  young  ladies  will  avoid  all  ground  of  com- 
plaint, and  endeavor  to  make  themselves  agreeable  in  their  family 
intercourse,  thus  securing  honor  to  themselves  and  the  institution. 

The  Principal  requests  that  any  marked  and  continued  disregard  of 
these  regulations  may  be  reported  to  him. 

The  school  sessions  commence  at  eight  and  a  half  o'clock,  A.  M.,  and 
close  at  two  o'clock,  p.  M.  On  Saturday  no  session  is  held. 

Pupils  who  desire  to  leave  town  for  home,  or  for  other  places,  are 
expected  to  confer  with  the  Principal. 

The  following  letter  from  Mr.  Peirce,  the  first  Principal 
of  the  West  Newton  State  Normal  School,  will  exhibit  the 
views  with  which  this  eminent  teacher  and  educator  con- 
ducted the  first  institution  of  the  kind  opened  on  this  con- 
tinent : 

"DEAR  SIR: — You  ask  me  'what  I  aimed  to  accomplish,  and  would 
aim  to  accomplish  now,  with  my  past  experience  before  me,  in  a  Normal 
School.' 

I  answer  briefly,  that  it  was  my  aim,  and  it  would  be  my  aim  again, 
to  make  better  teachers,  and  especially,  better  teachers  for  our  common 
schools;  so  that  those  primary  seminaries,  on  which  so  many  depend 
for  their  education,  might  answer,  in  a  higher  degree,  the  end  of  their 
institution.  Yes,  to  make  better  teachers;  teachers  who  would  under- 
stand, and  do  their  business  better;  teachers,  who  should  know  more 
of  the  nature  of  children,  of  youthful  developments,  more  of  the  sub- 


74  WEST    NEWTON    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

jects  to  be  taught,  and  more  of  the  true  methods  of  teaching;  who 
would  teach  more  philosophically,  more  in  harmony  with  the  natural 
development  of  the  young  mind,  with  a  truer  regard  to  the  order  and 
connection  in  which  the  different  branches  of  knowledge  should  be 
presented  to  it,  and,  of  course,  more  successfully.  Again,  I  felt  that 
there  was  a  call  for  a  truer  government,  a  higher  training  and  discip- 
line, in  our  schools;  that  the  appeal  to  the  rod,  to  a  sense  of  shame  and 
fear  of  bodily  pain,  so  prevalent  in  them,  had  a  tendency  to  make 
children  mean,  secretive,  and  vengeful,  instead  of  high-minded,  truth- 
ful, and  generous;  and  I  wished  to  see  them  in  the  hands  of  teachers, 
who  could  understand  the  higher  and  purer  motives  of  action,  as  grati- 
tude, generous  affection,  sense  of  duty,  by  which  children  should  be 
influenced,  and  under  which  their  whole  character  should  be  formed. 
In  short,  I  was  desirous  of  putting  our  schools  into  the  hands  of  those 
who  would  make  them  places  in  which  children  could  learn,  not  only 
to  read,  and  write,  and  spell,  and  cipher,  but  gain  information  on 
various  other  topics,  (as  accounts,  civil  institutions,  natural  history, 
physiology,  political  economy,  &c.)  which  would  be  useful  to  them  in 
after  life,  and  have  all  their  faculties,  (physical,  intellectual  and 
moral,)  trained  in  such  harmony  and  proportion,  as  would  result  in 
the  highest  formation  of  character.  This  is  what  I  supposed  the  object 
of  Normal  Schools  to  be.  Such  was  my  object. 

But  in  accepting  the  charge  of  the  first  American  Institution,  of  this 
kind,  I  did  not  act  in  the  belief  that  there  were  no  good  teachers,  or 
good  schools  among  us;  or  that  I  was  more  wise,  more  fit  to  teach, 
than  all  my  fellows.  On  the  contrary,  I  knew  that  there  were,  both 
within  and  without  Massachusetts,  excellent  schools,  and  not  a  few 
of  them,  and  teachers  wiser  than  myself;  yet  my  conviction  was  strong, 
that  the  ratio  of  such  schools  to  the  whole  number  of  schools  were 
small;  and  that  the  teachers  in  them,  for  the  most  part,  had  grown 
up  to  be  what  they  were,  from  long  observation,  and  through  the 
discipline  of  an  experience  painful  to  themselves,  and  more  painful  to 
their  pupils. 

It  was  my  impression  also,  that  a  majority  of  those  engaged  in 
school-keeping,  taught  few  branches  and  those  imperfectly,  that  they 
possessed  little  fitness  for  their  business,  did  not  understand  well, 
either  the  nature  of  children  or  the  subjects  they  professed  to  teach, 
and  had  little  skill  in  the  art  of  teaching  or  governing  schools.  I  could 
not  think  it  possible  for  them,  therefore,  to  make  their  instructions 
very  intelligible,  interesting,  or  profitable  to  their  pupils,  or  present  to 
them  the  motives  best  adapted  to  secure  good  lessons  and  good  con- 
duct, or,  in  a  word,  adopt  such  a  course  of  training  as  would  result  in 
a  sound  development  of  the  faculties,  and  the  sure  formation  of  a  good 
character.  I  admitted  that  a  skill  and  power  to  do  all  this  might  be 
acquired  by  trial,  if  teachers  continued  in  their  business  long  enough; 
but  while  teachers , were  thus  learning,  I  was  sure  that  pupils  must  be 
suffering.  In  the  process  of  time,  a  man  may  find  out  by  experiment, 
(trial,)  how  to  tan  hides  and  convert  them  into  leather.  But  most 
likely  the  time  would  be  long,  and  he  would  spoil  many  before  he  got 
through.  It  would  be  far  better  for  him,  we  know,  to  get  some  knowl- 
edge of  Chemistry,  and  spend  a  little  time  in  his  neighbor's  tannery, 
before  he  sets  up  for  himself.  In  the  same  way,  the  farmer  may  learn 
what  trees,  and  fruits,  and  seeds,  are  best  suited  to  particular  soils, 
and  climates,  and  modes  of  culture,  but  it  must  be  by  a  needless  outlay 
of  time  and  labor,  and  the  incurring  of  much  loss.  If  wise,  he  would 
first  learn  the  principles  and  facts  which  agricultural  experiments 
have  already  established,  and  then  commence  operations.  So  the  more 
J  considered  the  subject,  the  more  the  conviction  grew  upon  my  mind, 


WEST    NEWTON    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL.  75 

that  by  a  judicious  course  of  study,  and  of  discipline,  teachers  may  be 
prepared  to  enter  on  their  work,  not  only  with  the  hope,  but  almost 
with  the  assurance  of  success.  I  did  not  then,  I  do  not  now,  (at  least 
in  the  fullest  extent  of  it,)  assent  to  the  doctrine  so  often  expressed 
in  one  form  or  another,  that  there  are  no  general  principles  to  be 
recognized  in  education;  no  general  methods  to  be  followed  in  the  art 
of  teaching;  that  all  depends  upon  the  individual  teacher;  that  every 
principle,  motive  and  method,  must  owe  its  power  to  the  skill  with 
which  it  is  applied;  that  what  is  true,  and  good,  and  useful  in  the 
hands  of  one,  may  be  quite  the  reverse  in  the  hands  of  another;  and 
of  course,  that  every  man  must  invent  his  own  methods  of  teaching 
and  governing,  it  being  impossible  successfully  to  adopt  those  of 
another.  To  me  it  seemed  that  education  had  claims  to  be  regarded 
as  a  science,  being  based  on  immutable  principles,  of  which  the  prac- 
tical teacher,  though  he  may  modify  them  to  meet  the  change  of 
ever-varying  circumstances,  can  never  lose  sight. 

That  the  educator  should  watch  the  operations  of  nature,  the  de- 
velopment of  the  mind,  discipline  those  faculties  whose  activities  first 
appear,  and  teach  that  knowledge  first,  which  the  child  can  most 
easily  comprehend,  viz.,  that  which  comes  in  through  the  senses,  rather 
than  through  reason  and  the  imagination;  that  true  education  de- 
mands, or  rather  implies  the  training,  strengthening,  and  perfecting 
of  all  the  faculties  by  means  of  the  especial  exercise  of  each;  that  in 
teaching,  we  must  begin  with  what  is  simple  and  known,  and  go  on 
by  easy  steps  to  what  is  complex  and  unknown;  that  for  true  progress 
and  lasting  results,  it  were  better  for  the  attention  to  be  concentrated 
on  a  few  studies,  and  for  a  considerable  time,  than  to  be  divided  among 
many,  changing  from  one  to  another  at  short  intervals;  that  in  train- 
ing children  we  must  concede  a  special  recognition  to  the  principle  of 
curiosity,  a  love  of  knowledge,  and  so  present  truth  as  to  keep  this 
principle  in  proper  action;  that  the  pleasure  of  acquiring,  and  the 
advantage  of  possessing  knowledge,  may  be  made,  and  should  be  made, 
a  sufficient  stimulus  to  sustain  wholesome  exertion  without  resorting 
to  emulation,  or  medals,  or  any  awards  other  than  those  which  are  the 
natural  fruits  of  industry  and  attainment;  that  for  securing  order 
and  obedience,  there  are  better  ways  than  to  depend  solely  or  chiefly 
upon  the  rod,  or  appeals  to  fear;  that  much  may  be  done  by  way  of 
prevention  of  evil;  that  gentle  means  should  always  first  be  tried; 
that  undue  attention  is  given  to  intellectual  training  in  our  schools, 
to  the  neglect  of  physical  and  moral;  that  the  training  of  the  faculties 
is  more  important  than  the  communication  of  knowledge;  that  the 
discipline,  the  instruction  of  the  school-room,  should  better  subserve 
the  interests  of  real  life,  than  it  now  does; — these  are  some  of  the 
principles,  truths,  facts,  in  education,  susceptible,  I  think,  of  the 
clearest  demonstration,  and  pretty  generally  admitted  now,  by  all  en- 
lightened educators. 

The  old  method  of  teaching  Arithmetic,  for  instance,  by  taking  jip 
some  printed  treatise  and  solving  abstract  questions  consisting  of  large 
numbers,  working  blindly  by  what  must  appear  to  the  pupil  arbitrary 
rules,  would  now  be  regarded  as  less  philosophical,  less  in  conformity 
to  mental  development,  than  the  more  modern  way  of  beginning  with 
mental  Arithmetic,  using  practical  questions,  which  involve  small 
numbers,  and  explaining  the  reason  of  every  step  as  you  go  along. 

So  in  the  study  of  Grammar,  no  Normal  teacher,  whether  a  graduate 
or  not,  of  a  Normal  School,  would  require  his  pupils  to  commit  the 
whole  text-book  to  memory,  before  looking  at  the  nature  of  words, 
and  their  application  in  the  structure  of  sentences  Almost  all  have 


76  WEST    NEWTON    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

found  out  that  memorizing  the  Grammar-book,  and  the  exercise  of 
parsing,  do  very  little  toward  giving  one  a  knowledge  of  the  English 
language. 

Neither  is  it  learning  Geography,  to  read  over  and  commit  to  mem- 
ory, statistics  of  the  length  and  breadth  of  countries,  their  boundaries, 
latitude  and  longitude,  &c.,  &c.,  without  map  or  globe,  or  any  visible 
illustration,  as  was  once  the  practice.  Nor  does  the  somewhat  modern 
addition  of  maps  and  globes  much  help  the  process,  unless  the  scholar, 
by  a  previous  acquaintance  with  objects  in  the  outer  world,  has  been 
prepared  to  use  them.  The  shading  for  mountains,  and  black  lines 
for  rivers  on  maps,  will  be  of  little  use  to  a  child  who  has  not  already 
some  idea  of  a  mountain  and  a  river. 

And  the  teacher  who  should  attempt  to  teach  reading  by  requiring 
a  child  to  repeat  from  day  to  day,  and  from  month  to  month,  the 
whole  alphabet,  until  he  is  familiar  with  all  the  letters,  as  was  the 
fashion  in  former  days,  would  deserve  to  lose  his  place  and  be  sent 
himself  to  school.  Could  anything  be  more  injudicious?  Is  it  not 
more  in  harmony  with  Nature's  work,  to  begin  with  simple,  significant 
words,  or  rather  sentences,  taking  care  always  to  select  such  as  are 
easy  and  intelligible,  as  well  as  short?  Or,  if  letters  be  taken  first, 
should  they  not  be  formed  into  small  groups,  on  some  principle  of 
association,  and  be  combined  with  some  visible  object? 

Surely,  the  different  methods  of  teaching  the  branches  above-men- 
tioned, are  not  all  equally  good.  Teaching  is  based  on  immutable 
principles,  and  may  be  regarded  as  an  art. 

Nearly  thirty  years'  experience  in  the  business  of  teaching,  I  thought, 
had  given  me  some  acquaintance  with  its  true  principles  and  processes, 
and  I  deemed  it  no  presumption  to  believe  that  I  could  teach  them 
to  others.  This  I  attempted  to  do  in  the  Normal  School  at  Lexington; 
1st  didactically,  i.  e.  by  precept,  in  the  form  of  familiar  conversations 
and  lectures;  2d.  by  giving  every  day,  and  continually,  in  my  own 
manner  of  teaching,  an  exemplification  of  my  theory;  3d.  by  requiring 
my  pupils  to  teach  each  other,  in  my  presence,  the  things  which  I  had 
taught  them;  and  4th.  by  means  of  the  Model  School,  where,  under 
my  general  supervision,  the  Normal  pupils  had  an  opportunity,  both 
to  prove  and  to  improve  their  skill  in  teaching  and  managing  schools. 
At  all  our  recitations,  (the  modes  of  which  were  very  various,)  and 
in  other  connections,  there  was  allowed  the  greatest  freedom  of  in- 
quiry and  remark,  and  principles,  modes,  processes,  every  thing  indeed 
relating  to  school-keeping,  was  discussed.  The  thoughts  and  opinions 
of  each  one  were  thus  made  the  property  of  the  whole,  and  there  was 
infused  into  all  hearts  a  deeper  and  deeper  interest  in  the  teachers' 
calling.  In  this  way  the  Normal  School  became  a  kind  of  standing 
Teachers'  Institute. 

But  for  a  particular  account  of  my  manner  and  processes  at  the 
Normal  School,  allow  me  to  refer  you  to  a  letter  which  I  had  the 
honor,  at  your  request,  to  address  to  you  from  Lexington,  Jan.  1,  1841, 
and  which  was  published  in  the  Common  School  Journal,  both  of 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  (vol.  3.) 

What  success  attended  my  labors,  I  must  leave  to  others  to  say.  I 
acknowledged,  it  was  far  from  being  satisfactory  to  myself.  Still  the 
experiment  convinced  me  that  Normal  Schools  may  be  made  a  power- 
ful auxiliary  to  the  cause  of  education.  A  thorough  training  in  them, 
I  am  persuaded,  will  do  much  toward  supplying  the  want  of  experience. 
It  will  make  the  teachers'  work  easier,  surer,  better.  I  have  reason 
to  believe  that  Normal  pupils'  are  much  indebted  for  whatever  of 
fitness  they  possess  for  teaching,  to  the  Normal  School.  They  uniformly 


WEST    NEWTON    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL.  77 

profess  so  to  feel.  I  have,  moreover,  made  diligent  inquiry  in  regard 
to  their  success,  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  that  it  has  been 
manifestly  great.  Strong  testimonials  to  the  success  of  many  of  the 
early  graduates  of  the  Lexington  (now  W.  Newton)  Normal  School, 
were  published  with  the  8th  Report  of  the  late  secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  and  may  be  found  in  the  7th  vol.  of  the  Massachusetts 
Common  School  Journal. 

But  it  is  sometimes  asked,  (and  the  inquiry  deserves  an  answer,) 
Allowing  that  teaching  is  an  art,  and  that  teachers  may  be  trained 
for  their  business,  have  we  not  High  Schools  and  Academies,  in  which 
the  various  school  branches  are  well  taught?  May  not  teachers  in 
them  be  prepared  for  their  work?  Where  is  the  need  then  of  a  dictinct 
order  of  Seminaries  for  training  teachers?  I  admit  we  have  Acade- 
mies, High  Schools,  and  other  schools,  furnished  with  competent  teach- 
ers, in  which  is  excellent  teaching;  but  at  the  time  of  the  establishment 
of  the  Normal  Schools  in  Massachusetts,  there  was  not,  to  my  knowl- 
edge, any  first-rate  institution  exclusively  devoted  to  training  teachers 
for  our  common  schools;  neither  do  I  think  there  is  now  any,  except 
the  Normal  Schools.  And  teachers  can  not  be  prepared  for  their  work 
anywhere  else,  so  well  as  in  seminaries  exclusively  devoted  to  this 
object.  The  art  of  teaching  must  be  made  the  great,  the  paramount, 
the  only  concern.  It  must  not  come  in  as  subservient  to,  or  merely 
collateral  with  any  thing  else  whatever.  And  again,  a  Teachers'  Sem- 
inary should  have  annexed  to  it,  or  rather  as  an  integral  part  of  it, 
a  model,  or  experimental  school  for  practice. 

Were  I  to  be  placed  in  a  Normal  School  again,  the  only  difference  in 
my  aim  would  be  to  give  more  attention  to  the  development  of  the  fac- 
ulties, to  the  spirit  and  motives  by  which  a  teacher  should  be  moved, 
to  physical  and  moral  education,  to  the  inculcation  of  good  principles 
and  good  manners. 

In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  recapitulate.  It  was  my  aim,  and  it  would 
be  my  aim  again,  in  a  Normal  School,  to  raise  up  for  our  common 
schools  especially,  a  better  class  of  teachers, — teachers  who  would  not 
only  teach  more  and  better  than  those  already  in  the  field,  but  who 
would  govern  better;  teachers,  who  would  teach  in  harmony  with 
the  laws  of  juvenile  development,  who  would  secure  diligent  study  and 
good  lessons  and  sure  progress,  without  a  resort  to  emulation  and 
premiums,  and  good  order  from  higher  motives  than  the  fear  of  the 
rod  or  bodily  pain;  teachers,  who  could  not  only  instruct  well  in  the 
common  branches,  as  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  &c.,  but  give  valu- 
able information  on  a  variety  of  topics,  such  as  accounts,  history, 
civil  institutions,  political  economy,  and  physiology;  bring  into  action 
the  various  powers  of  children,  and  prepare  them  for  the  duties  of 
practical  life;  teachers,  whose  whole  influence  on  their  pupils,  direct 
and  indirect,  should  be  good,  tending  to  make  them,  not  only  good 
readers,  geographers,  grammarians,  arithmeticians,  &c.,  but  good  schol- 
ars, good  children,  obedient,  kind,  respectful,  mannerly,  truthful;  and 
in  due  time,  virtuous,  useful  citizens,  kind  neighbors,  high-minded, 
noble  pious  men  and  women.  And  this  I  attempted  to  do  by  inculcating 
the  truth  in  the  art  of  teaching  and  governing, — the  truth  in  all  things; 
and  by  giving  them  a  living  example  of  it  in  my  own  practice." 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

AT 

BRIDGEWATER. 


The  Normal  School  at  Bridgewater,  as  well  as  that  at 
Westfield,  receives  both  male  and  female  pupils.  The  regu- 
lations respecting  the  admission  of  pupils,  course  of  study, 
number  and  length  of  each  session,  are  set  forth  in  the  Reg- 
ulations of  the  Board.  The  following  communications  from 
Mr.  N.  Tillinghast,  who  has  been  the  Principal  of  this  Insti- 
tution from  its  first  establishment,  and  has  now  the  longest 
experience  of  any  Normal  School  teacher  in  this  country, 
gives  the  general  results  of  his  experience,  and  the  exper- 
ience of  this  Institution  in  the  work  of  educating  teachers. 

"The  main  facts  about  this  school  you  are  already  acquainted  with. 
It  went  into  operation  September  9th,  1840,  with  28  pupils.  There  have 
entered  the  school  in  all,  657  pupils;  365  females,  292  males.  Up  to 
August,  1846,  pupils  were  received  for  two  terms,  which  were  not 
necessarily  successive.  Since  that  time  they  have  been  required  to 
remain  three  successive  terms,  of  14  weeks  each.  The  average  num- 
ber at  present  is  between  60  and  70.  The  whole  number  of  pupils 
since  August,  1846,  is  252;  of  these,  32,  from  various  causes,  have  left 
the  school  after  one  or  two  terms.  Of  the  220,  two  have  not  been,  and 
apparently,  do  not  intend  to  be,  teachers. 

It  seems  to  me  that  these  schools  are  doing  good.  My  own  scholars 
have,  I  think,  succeeded  as  well  as  I  could  reasonably  expect.  Many 
have  failed;  indeed  many  from  whom  I  looked  for  success;  others 
have  continued  to  keep  schools,  but  doing  no  better,  for  aught  that  I 
know,  than  they  would  have  done  without  staying  a  year  here;  but 
still  I  can  not  feel  disappointed. 

There  are,  it  seems  to  me,  grave  defects  in  the  constitution  of  my 
school.  Four  years  would,  in  my  judgment,  be  profitably  given  to  the 
subjects  which  we  touch  on  in  one.  If  pupils  must  be  taught  subjects 
in  these  schools,  as  I  think  they  must  for  a  time  under  the  best  organ- 
ization, the  course  ought  to  extend  over  three  years  at  least.  I  think 
it  would  be  a  better  plan  than  the  present,  to  receive  pupils  for,  say 
twenty-one  weeks,  and  to  give  that  time  to  reading,  spelling,  arith- 
metic, and  geography;  and  in  another  twenty-one  weeks,  to  take  up 
reading,  spelling,  physiology,  grammar;  so  that  only  a  few  studies 
should  be  in  the  school  at  a  time,  and  teachers  might  go  for  a  term 
without  interfering  with  their  teaching  school.  The  great  evil  now,  in 
my  school,  is  the  attempt  to  take  up  so  many  studies,  most  persons 
inverting  the  truth,  and  supposing  the  amount  acquired  the  important 
thing,  and  the  study  unimportant.  But  I  should  be  content  if  I  could 
bring  pupils  into  such  a  state  of  desire  that  they  would  pursue  truth, 
and  into  such  a  state  of  knowledge  that  they  could  recognize  her  when 
overtaken.  A  very  few  studies,  and  long  dwelling  on  them — this  is  my 
theory.  I  have  no  especial  belief  in  teaching  others  methods  of  teach- 
ing: I  do  not  mean,  that  the  subject  should  be  entirely  passed  by;  but 
that  pupils  should  not  be  trained  into,  or  directed  into  particular 
processes;  it  seems  to  me  that  each  well-instructed  mind  will  arrive 
at  a  method  of  imparting,  better  for  it  than  any  other  method.  I  there- 


80  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  AT  BRIDGEWATEB. 

fore  have  tried  to  bring  my  pupils  to  get  results  for  themselves  and 
to  show  them  how  they  may  feel  confident  of  the  truth  of  their  results. 
I  have  sought  criticism  from  my  scholars  on  all  my  methods,  processes, 
and  results;  aimed  to  have  them,  kindly  of  course,  hut  freely  criticise 
each  other;  and  they  are  encouraged  to  ask  questions,  and  propose 
doubts.  I  call  on  members  of  the  classes  to  hear  recitations,  and  on 
the  others  to  make  remarks,  thus  approving  and  disapproving  one  an- 
other; they  are  called  upon  to  make  up  general  exercises,  and  to  de- 
liver them  to  their  classes,  sometimes  on  subjects  and  in  styles  fitted 
to  those  whom  they  address;  sometimes  they  are  bid  to  imagine  them- 
selves speaking  to  children.  I  find  I  am  getting  more  into  details  than 
I  intend,  or  you  wish.  My  idea  of  a  Normal  School  is,  that  it  should 
have  a  term  of  four  years;  that  those  studies  should  be  pursued  that 
will  lay  a  foundation  on  which  to  build  an  education.  I  mean,  for  ex- 
ample, that  algebra  should  be  thoroughly  studied  as  the  foundation  for 
arithmetic;  that  geometry  and  trigonometry  should  be  studied,  by 
which,  with  algebra,  to  study  natural  philosophy  &c.;  the  number  of 
studies  should  be  comparatively  small,  but  much  time  given  to  them. 
I,  of  course  do  not  intend  to  write  a  list  of  studies  and  what  I  have 
said  above  is  only  for  illustration;  the  teacher  should  be  so  trained  as 
to  be  above  his  text  books.  Whatever  has  been  done  in  teaching  in  all 
countries,  different  methods,  the  thoughts  of  the  best  minds  on  the 
science  and  the  art  of  instruction,  should  be  laid  before  the  neophyte 
teachers.  In  a  proper  Normal  School  there  should  be  departments,  and 
the  ablest  men  put  over  them,  each  in  his  own  department.  Who 
knows  more  than  one  branch  well? 

I  send  herewith  a  catalogue  of  my  school,  which  will  give  you  some 
idea  of  its  osteology;  what  of  life  these  bones  have,  others  must  judge. 
But  when  shall  the  whole  vision  of  the  Prophet  be  fulfilled  in  regard 
to  the  teachers  of  the  land, — "And  the  breath  came  into  them,  and  they 
lived  and  stood  upon  their  feet,  (not  on  those  of  any  author)  an  ex- 
ceeding great  army." 

God  prosper  the  work,  and  may  your  exertions  in  the  cause  be  grate- 
fully remembered." 

The  Visitors  of  the  Bridgewater  Normal  School,  in  their 
Report  to  the  Board,  in  December,  1850,  present  the  follow- 
ing statement : — 

"That  at  the  first  term  of  the  normal  year,  seventeen  pupils  en- 
tered; and  during  that  term  the  whole  number  was  fifty-nine.  At  the 
second  term,  thirty-one  entered;  during  which  term  the  whole  number 
was  seventy-two.  At  the  third  term,  ending  November  12,  twenty-five 
entered;  and  the  whole  number  during  that  term  was  seventy-nine. 
The  whole  number  received  during  the  year  was  seventy-three.  Fifteen 
graduated  at  the  end  of  the  year.  Two  of  the  graduating  class  left  the 
school  on  account  of  ill  health. 

The  young  men  of  the  graduating  class  are  all  engaged  for  the  win- 
ter schools.  Of  the  young  ladies,  some  are  teaching  now,  and  all  intend 
to  take  schools  as  they  have  opportunity. 

The  visitors  have  repeated  their  attendance  upon  the  school,  at  dif- 
ferent times  during  the  year,  with  the  highest  satisfaction.  They  have 
witnessed,  with  great  pleasure,  the  enlightened  zeal  and  earnestness 
with  which  the  principal  and  his  assistants  have  done  their  work,  and 
bear  testimony  to  the  evident  thoroughness  with  which  the  training 
of  the  pupils  has  been  conducted.  They  regard  this  school  as  an  honor 
to  the  state,  and  as  doing  a  most  important  service  in  regard  to  the 
great  cause  of  education." 


CONDITION 

OF  THE 

STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOLS   IN   MASSACHUSETTS   IN   1850. 


The  following  facts  and  suggestions  respecting  the  con- 
dition and  improvement  of  the  State  Normal  Schools  of 
Massachusetts  at  the  close  of  the  year  1850,  are  gathered 
from  the  "Fourteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation," dated  Dec.  12,  1850.  The  whole  document  is  highly 
creditable  to  the  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts.  The  large 
amount  voluntarily  raised  by  the  people  of  the  several  cities 
and  towns,  for  the  support  of  common  schools,  is  without 
a  parallel  in  the  history  of  popular  education.  The  appropri- 
ation of  a  portion  of  the  avails  of  the  school  fund,  for  the 
general  purposes  of  Teachers'  Institutes,  Normal  Schools, 
State  and  County  Associations  of  Teachers,  Agents  of  the 
Board  of  Education  for  Inspection  of  Schools  and  Address- 
es to  the  People,  does  more  for  the  prosperity  of  the  school 
system,  than  a  much  larger  sum  expended  directly  on  the 
schools,  and  which,  in  most  cases,  would  only  diminish  to 
that  extent  the  sum  raised  by  the  people  of  the  towns. 

TEACHERS'   INSTITUTES 

"Twelve  different  Teachers'  Institutes  have  been  held,  and  attended 
by  the  secretary,  in  as  many  different  and  distant  parts  of  the  state.  By 
an  improved  organization,  and  by  the  use  of  somewhat  permanent 
teachers  for  the  more  important  branches  in  which  instruction  was 
given,  these  Institutes  have  been  made  to  act  with,  it  is  believed,  very 
beneficial  effects,  upon  a  larger  number  of  teachers  than  have  been 
reached  in  any  former  year.  The  Board  continue  to  think  very  highly 
of  the  usefulness  and  efficiency  of  well-managed  Teachers'  Institutes, 
and  would  respectfully  urge  the  continuance  of  the  means  necessary 
for  their  support.  Not  less  than  1,750  individuals,  nearly  all  of  them 
actual  teachers  in  the  common  schools,  have,  this  year,  been  members 
of  the  Institutes;  very  much  larger  numbers  have  listened  to  the  lec- 
tures and  course  of  instruction  given  at  them;  and  the  testimony  is 
abundant  and  uniform  as  to  the  beneficial  effects  upon  the  schools  of 
the  influence  thus  exerted." 

NORMAL  SCHOOLS 

"But  the  most  important  organ  for  the  advancement  of  the  teachers, 
and  with  them  of  the  schools  in  the  commonwealth,  and  the  most 
prolific  of  hopeful  results,  is  the  Normal  Schools;  and  to  these  the 
Board  have  continued  to  give  their  especial  attention. 

The  citizens  of  most  of  the  towns  in  the  state,  have  reason  to  look 
with  pride  and  satisfaction  upon  what  they  have  done  in  regard  to  the 
building,  furnishing,  warming,  and  ventilating  of  school-houses;  and 
they  have  reason  to  rejoice  that  their  example  has  been  followed  in 
many  of  the  sister  states.  These  improvements  are  valuable  in  them- 

F 


82  STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOLS    IN    MASSACHUSETTS    IN    1850. 

selves,  and  still  more  as  evidence  of  the  interest  which  the  people 
take  in  their  schools.  But  they  are  external.  They  do  not  directly 
touch  the  most  essential  interests  of  the  schools:  the  education  of  the 
teachers  is  the  important  thing.  Nearly  all  the  evils  complained  of  in 
the  present  condition  of  the  schools  will  diminish,  and  finally,  almost 
disappear,  under  the  influence  of  highly  qualified  teachers.  The  great- 
est of  them,  irregularity  of  attendance  and  truancy,  can  be  removed 
in  no  other  way.  They  may  be  lessened,  but  can  not  be  prevented,  by 
enactments.  The  remedy  in  each  school  is  a  good  teacher;  one  who 
knows  how  to  interest  his  pupils,  and  make  them  feel  that  absence 
from  school  is  an  absolute  personal  loss,  and  who  knows  how  to  win 
the  affections,  so  as  to  make  his  pupils  earnestly  desire  to  do  what 
he  wishes. 

The  better  education  of  teachers,  then,  in  whatever  may  render 
them  more  able  to  teach,  and  more  powerful  to  influence,  is  the  object 
which,  most  of  all  the  Board  desire  to  keep  in  view;  and  the  most  ef- 
ficient agency  for  this  object  with  which  they  are  acquainted,  is  the 
Normal  School.  They  refer,  with  satisfaction,  to  the  several  reports 
which  they  herewith  submit,  upon  the  condition  of  the  Normal  Schools. 

It  was  expected  that  the  numbers  in  these  schools  would  be  some- 
what diminished  by  the  increase  in  the  length  of  time  required  to  be 
spent  at  them.  In  this  expectation  the  Board  have  been  agreeably 
disappointed,  the  attendance  not  having  been  less  than  in  any  former 
year. 

Still,  notwithstanding  what  has  yet  been  done  by  these  schools,  and 
by  the  Teachers'  Institutes,  the  supply  of  competent  teachers  is  en- 
tirely inadequate  to  the  wants  of  the  schools;  and  there  is  danger  lest, 
to  meet  this  demand,  persons  superficially  instructed  shall  be  sent  out 
as  teachers  from  the  Normal  Schools.  To  guard  against  this  danger, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  to  elevate  the  standard  in  the  schools  from 
which  the  pupils  of  the  Normal  Schools  come,  and  in  the  Normal 
Schools  themselves,  the  Board  deem  it  advisable  to  make  the  requisi- 
tions for  admission  higher;  and,  to  render '"the  annual  examinations  for 
the  classes  within  the  Normal  Schools  more  minute,  more  thorough 
and  more  extended  than  heretofore,  they  propose  to  have  them  con- 
ducted in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  these  schools  into  more  intimate 
relations  with  the  distinguished  teachers  in  other  institutions  in  the 
state,  and  to  make  their  true  character  and  condition  better  and  more 
extensively  known  to  the  citizens.  Such  examinations  would,  they 
believe,  operate  as  a  healthful  stimulus  both  to  teachers  and  pupils, 
and,  if  made  publicly,  might  lead  to  more  thorough  and  effective  ex- 
aminations in  the  other  schools  in  the  state. 

The  house  for  the  Normal  School,  at  West  Newton,  is  situated  in 
such  immediate  proximity  to  the  Worcester  railroad,  that  the  exercises 
of  the  school  are,  at  all  seasons,  seriously  interrupted  by  the  noise; 
and,  during  the  warmer  months  of  the  year,  when  the  windows  are  re- 
quired to  be  open,  the  inconvenience  and  loss  of  time  are  very  con- 
siderable. The  school  also,  in  consequence  of  its  rapid  increase,  is  now 
but  poorly  accommodated,  although  the  house,  when  placed,  not  many 
years  ago  at  the  disposal  of  the  Board  was  considered  very  ample. 
It  is,  therefore,  much  to  be  desired,  that  the  Board  should  have  the 
means  of  erecting  a  more  commodious  house,  in  a  more  retired  and 
quiet  situation.  For  the  present  building,  the  school  was  indebted  to 
the  munificence  of  a  gentleman  who  is  willing  to  consent  to  its  being 
disposed  of  for  some  other  use,  provided  the  benefit  hte  intended  to 
confer  upon  the  school  may  be  still  enjoyed  by  it.  The  lot  on  which 
it  stands  is  well  situated  for  the  purposes  of  business,  and  likely  to 


STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOLS   IN    MASSACHUSETTS    IN    1850.  83 

meet  with  a  ready  sale.  Landholders  in  the  neighborhood  have  ex- 
pressed a  generous  and  liberal  disposition  toward  the  school;  and 
there  is  a  probability  that  a  desirable  lot  could  be  obtained  on  favor- 
able terms.  Remembering  that  this  was  the  earliest  Normal  School  in 
America,  that,  being  near  the  seat  of  government  and  the  center  of 
population  of  the  state,  and  on  one  of  the  great  lines  of  communication 
with  the  interior  and  with  the  west,  it  is  frequently  visited  by  strang- 
ers who  come  to  examine  the  Massachusetts  school  system,  we  confi- 
dently hope  that  the  Legislature  will  consent  to  make  such  an  appro- 
priation as  will  enable  the  Board  to  erect  a  building  which  shall  be,  in 
all  respects,  internally  and  externally,  creditable  to  the  state,  and 
worthy  of  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  erected.  We  should  be  glad  to 
point  it  out  to  the  visitor  as  a  building  which,  in  structure,  arrange- 
ment, furniture,  and  apparatus,  might  be  regarded  as  a  model  and 
placed  in  a  situation  the  choice  of  which  should  not  seem  to  have  been 
left  to  accident  or  necessity. 

In  their  last  Annual  Report,  the  Board  made  known  to  the  Legisla- 
ture some  regulations  recently  made  in  regard  to  the  studies  to  be 
pursued  at  the  Normal  Schools.  Among  the  advanced  studies,  they 
proposed  to  include  "so  much  of  chemistry  as  relates  to  the  atmos- 
phere, the  waters,  and  the  growth  of  plants  and  animals."  So  much 
instruction  in  chemistry  as  this,  was  thought  desirable  to  be  given, 
especially  with  reference  to  its  application  to  agriculture,  that  the 
teachers  educated  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  may  have  some  acquaint- 
ance with  the  principles  of  science,  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the 
most  essential  and  important  of  all  the  arts.  To  provide  the  means 
of  giving  instruction  in  this  subject  by  lectures  and  experiments,  it  is 
desirable,  in  the  view  of  the  Board,  that  the  annual  appropriation  for 
the  support  of  the  Normal  Schools  should  be  somewhat  increased. 

In  their  last  Annual  Report,  the  Board  had  the  pleasure  of  acknowl- 
edging a  munificent  bequest  from  the  late  Henry  Todd,  Esq.,  of  Boston, 
made  for.  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  Normal  Schools.  On  the  7th  day  of 
June,  1850,  Thomas  P.  Gushing,  Esq.,  executor  of  Mr.  Todd,  paid  into 
the  hands  of  the  treasurer  of  the  commonwealth,  as  the  amount  of 
that  bequest,  the  sum  of  $10,797.72.  As  it  is  known  to  have  been  the 
intention  of  the  donor  to  have  the  whole  interest  of  his  bequest  appro- 
priated so  as  to  be  a  clear  addition  to  what  would  otherwise  have 
been  at  the  disposal  of  the  Board  for  the  Normal  Schools,  the  Board 
propose  to  use  the  interest  of  Mr.  Todd's  bequest  in  providing  for 
stated  annual  examinations  of  these  schools,  and  in  such  other  ways 
as  may  seem  best  for  their  advancement  and  immediate  usefulness." 

SCHOOL  FUND. 

"On  the  first  of  December,  1850,  the  school  fund 

amounted   to $958,921  19 

Having  been   increased,   during  the  year,   by  the 

sum   of 74,580  45 

Of  this  fund,  the  sum  of 218,559  73 

consists  of  land  notes  not  productive, 

leaving   the    sum   of 740,361  46 

productive,  and  so  invested  as  to  yield  about  $40,000  for  distribution 
among  the  towns  for  the  support  of  schools. 

The  school  fund,  it  thus  appears,  has  very  nearly  reached  the  limit 
($1,000,000)  fixed  by  the  act  of  1843,  by  which  it  was  established. 

The  benefits  which  have  been  derived  from  the  wise  and  economical 
use  of  this  fund,  are  every  where  manifest  in  all  the  public  schools  of 
the  commonwealth.  As  hitherto  managed,  the  fund  has  been  produc- 


84  STATE    NOBMAL    SCHOOLS    IN    MASSACHUSETTS    IN    1850. 

tive  of  unmixed  good.  The  danger  incident  to  a  large  fund  for  the 
benefit  of  schools  is,  that  the  people,  relying  upon  this  fund,  shall 
neglect  to  take  a  personal  interest  in  the  support  of  the  schools,  in 
consequence  of  being  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  taxing  themselves. 
But  no  evil  of  this  kind  has  yet  come  near  us.  During  the  year  1850, 
162  cities  and  towns  have  raised  more  than  twice  the  sum  required 
by  law  to  entitle  them  to  their  portion  of  the  school  fund.  All  the 
towns,  except  five,  have  raised  more,  and  the  greater  part  much  more 
than  the  required  sum;  two  only  have  raised  just  the  required  sum, 
and  only  two,  out  of  321  cities  and  towns,  have  fallen  below  that  sum. 
A  single  town  has  made  no  return.  The  average  of  all  the  sums 
raised  in  the  several  towns  and  cities,  for  the  instruction  of  the 
children  between  the  ages  of  five  and  fifteen  years,  is  nearly  three 
times  the  sum  required  by  law.  Thrice  the  sum  required  by  law  would 
be  $4  50  for  each  child.  The  aggregate  actually  raised  is  $4  42  for 
each.  It  thus  appears  that  the  effect  of  this  bounty  of  the  state  has 
been  most  beneficent,  and  nothing  but  beneficent,  so  far  as  can  be 
judged  from  the  sums  voluntarily  raised  for  the  support  of  schools. 
In  view  of  the  benefits  thus  accruing  to  the  great  interest  of  which 
they  have  charge,  the  Board  can  not  but  look  with  favor  upon  a  propo- 
sition which  promises  to  enhance  and  prolong  these  benefits,  by  widen- 
ing the  limit  within  which  the  school  fund  is  now  prospectively  con- 
fined. 

And  this  provision  they  deem  the  more  important,  as  the  time  may 
come  when  the  sale  of  the  public  lands,  from  a  moiety  of  the  proceeds 
of  which  appropriations  for  educational  purposes  are  now  drawn,  shall 
cease  to  be  productive. 

The  charges  made  upon  these  proceeds  during  the  past  year,  have 
been: 

The  grant  made  to  Amherst  College,        .        .        .  $5,000  00 

For  the  Normal  Schools 7,500  00 

For  Teachers'  Institutes 3,050  00 

The   Massachusetts   Teachers'   Association,        .        .  150  00 

County  Teachers'  Association, 550  00 

School   District  Libraries, 320  00 

Salary  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Board,        .        .        .  1,600  00 

Salary  of  Clerk  and  Assistant  Librarian,      .        .        .  1,266  67 

Agents  of  the  Board  of  Education 1,008  33 

Expenses  of  the  Board  of  Education,        .        .        .  224  49 

Incidental  expenses  of  the  Secretary,        .        .        .  157  30 

Expenses   of  the   office 664  29 

Expenses  of  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Board  and 

Secretary,              3,930  73 

Expenses  of  the  Committee  on  Education,        .        .  246  80 


$25,668  61 

WEST    NEWTON    NOBMAL    SCHOOL 

EXTBACT  from  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Visitors  of  the  West 
Newton  Normal  School. 

"The  whole  number  of  pupils  connected  with  the  school,  during  the 
year,  is  132.  The  greatest  number  at  any  time,  102;  the  least,  70.  The 
average  age  at  entrance  was  18  years.  The  number  of  towns  represent- 
ed is  45.  Hampshire  County  sends  one  pupil;  Worcester,  two;  Barn- 
stable,  two;  Nan  tucket,  two;  Franklin,  three;  Plymouth,  three;  Essex, 
six;  Norfolk,  fifteen;  Middlesex,  thirty;  and  Suffolk,  fifty-seven.  Elev- 


STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOLS    IN    MASSACHUSETTS    IN    1850.  85 

en  pupils  are  from  other  states;  from  Rhode  Island,  one;  Maine,  three; 
Vermont,  three;  New  Hampshire,  four. 

Of  the  parents  of  these  pupils,  23  are  farmers,  21  merchants,  8  car- 
penters, 4  shipmasters,  3  clergymen,  3  custom-house  officers,  3  super- 
intendents of  railroads,  2  physicians,  2  editors;  29  are  widows;  5  pu- 
pils are  orphans;  and  the  pursuits  of  the  remainder  are  distributed 
among  almost  all  the  occupations  known  in  our  community. 

Fifty-five  young  ladies  have  graduated,  after  having  honorably  com- 
pleted the  term  prescribed  for  pupils  at  this  institution. 

Two  classes  have  been  received  during  the  year.  For  the  first,  fifty- 
seven  candidates  presented  themselves  for  examination,  and  forty-seven 
were  received.  The  average  age  of  this  class,  at  entrance,  was  18*4 
years.  For  the  second  class,  forty-seven  candidates  presented  them- 
selves, and  thirty-seven  were  admitted.  The  number  of  pupils  who  have 
remained  at  the  school  for  a  longer  time  than  that  required  by  the 
rules  of  the  school,  is  44.  The  number  pledged  to  a  three  years'  course 
is  12. 

Besides  the  usual  studies,  the  pupils  have  had  the  benefit  of  twenty- 
one  lectures  on  educational  and  scientific  subjects,  which  have  been 
delivered  gratuitously  to  the  school,  by  gentlemen  eminent  in  their  var- 
ious departments. 

In  regard  to  the  model  school  connected  with  this  institution,  the 
committee  beg  leave  to  make  an  extract  from  the  report  of  the  prin- 
cipal, made  at  the  close  of  the  term,  in  December. 

He  says: — "By  an  agreement  entered  into  between  the  District  No. 
7,  of  Newton,  and  the  principal  of  this  institution,  on  the  7th  of  Decem- 
ber last,  the  grammar  school  of  the  district  became  connected  with  the 
State  Normal  School,  as  its  model  department.  By  the  terms  of  the 
agreement,  the  district  furnishes  schoolroom,  &c.,  and  one  permanent 
male  teacher,  approved  by  both  parties,  and  allow  such  addition  to 
their  number,  by  pupils  from  abroad,  on  a  small  tuition,  as  circum- 
stances justify.  The  State  Normal  School  furnishes  a  portion  of  ap- 
paratus, &c.,  and  two  assistant  teachers,  each  to  observe  one  week  pre- 
vious to  teaching,  and  to  teach  two  weeks  under  constant  supervision. 
The  number  of  young  ladies  who  have  been  thus  employed,  during  the 
year,  is  35;  the  whole  number  of  pupils  for  the  year,  in  the  model 
school,  is  125;  the  number  from  abroad,  50;  the  average  age  of  the  pu- 
pils, 14  years. 

By  an  additional  agreement  between  the  same  parties,  the  primary 
school  of  this  village  became  also  connected  with  the  State  Normal 
School,  May  1,  1850.  Since  this  time,  the  instruction  and  management 
of  this  school  have  mainly  devolved  upon  pupils  of  this  institution,  un- 
der the  direction  of  the  permanent  teacher  of  the  grammar  department. 
Teachers  have  been  furnished  on  the  same  principle  as  to  the  other 
school.  The  number  of  teachers  furnished  to  the  primary  school,  is  22; 
the  whole  number  of  pupils  is  75,  and  their  average  age,  7  years. 

The  model  school  has  continued  under  its  former  permanent  teacher, 
Mr.  Allen,  who  has  greatly  distinguished  himself  as  a  successful  edu- 
cator, and  who  is  worthy  of  great  commendation  for  the  earnestness 
and  faithfulness  with  which  he  has  devoted  himself  to  the  interest  both 
of  the  district  and  of  this  institution.  It  is  enough,  perhaps,  to  say  of 
the  model  school,  that  its  efficiency  has  been  continually  increasing, 
and  that,  in  the  opinion  of  those  competent  to  judge  of  it,  it  has  al- 
ready a  rank  considerably  above  the  average  of  schools  of  the  same 
grade  elsewhere. 

It  was  expected  that  the  arrangement  with  the  primary  department 
would  be  a  temporary  one,  each  party  reserving  the  right  to  give  it  up 


86  STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOLS    IN    MASSACHUSETTS    IN    1850. 

at  any  time.  It  is  the  opinion  of  the  school  committee  of  the  town,  and 
of  the  permanent  teacher  of  the  model  school,  as  it  is  my  own,  that  the 
experiment  has  proved  eminently  successful,  and  that  the  general  char- 
acter of  the  school  has  essentially  improved.  It  is,  however,  our  opin- 
ion, that  a  still  better  arrangement  may  now  be  properly  made  for  it, 
by  giving  it  one  permanent  female  teacher,  and  an  assistant  from  this 
school." 

On  another  topic,  the  principal  says  in  his  report — "It  is  believed 
that,  without  a  single  exception,  the  132  pupils  at  the  school,  this  year, 
have  had  not  only  an  honest  and  steady  purpose  to  become  teachers, 
but  have  a  strong  desire  to  do  good  in  this  most  excellent  way. 

Of  the  fifty-five  graduates,  which  include  those  who  leave  us  to-day, 
the  greater  portion  are  already  engaged  in  the  work;  several  have 
places  secured,  which  they  are  expecting  to  occupy  in  a  few  days;  sev- 
eral more  continue  yet  longer  here,  and  a  small  number  only  wait  for 
an  opportunity  to  teach." 

The  committee  are  gratified  to  be  able  to  state,  that  notwithstanding 
the  rule  adopted  by  the  Board  at  its  last  annual  meeting,  by  which  no 
pupil,  "except  those  of  more  than  ordinary  experience  and  attainments, 
can  be  received  into  this  school  for  a  less  period  than  four  consecutive 
terms,"  and  the  further  regulation  restricting  examinations  for  admis- 
sion to  the  commencement  of  two  instead  of  three  terms  in  the  year, 
the  number  of  pupils  has  not  diminished;  a  result  which  shows  the 
public  appreciation  of  the  advantages  afforded  by  the  Normal  Schools 
for  the  education  of  teachers. 

Two  examinations  of  this  school  have  been  made  by  the  committee, 
during  the  year — one  in  April,  and  one  in  December — both  of  which, 
conducted  in  a  manner  which  precluded  the  idea  of  special  preparation 
for  the  occasion,  were  highly  satisfactory. 

The  committee  having  ordered,  for  the  use  of  the  school-house,  one 
of  Mr.  Chilson's  furnaces,  were  informed,  when  they  waited  on  him 
for  the  purpose  of  paying  for  it,  that  the  bill  was  canceled;  Mr.  Chil- 
son  desiring  in  this  way  to  express  the  interest  he  felt  in  the  Normal 
Schools.  The  committee  desire  gratefully  to  acknowledge  this  gratuity, 
coming  as  it  does  from  a  gentleman  to  whom  the  public  are  greatly  in- 
debted for  improvements  in  warming  and  ventilating  apparatus  for 
private  houses,  churches,  and  schools." 

STATE   NORMAL   SCHOOL  AT  WESTFIELD. 

EXTRACT  from  the  Report  of  the  Visitors  of  the  School. 

"The  number  of  pupils  in  this  school  has  been  somewhat  diminished, 
by  requiring  those  who  enter  to  remain  three  terms  instead  of  two. 
The  whole  number  for  the  year  ending  November,  1850,  was  119;  the 
whole  number  for  the  year  previous  was  148.  It  was  expected  the  num- 
ber would  be  reduced,  and  in  fact  it  seemed  necessary  it  should  be;  for 
the  school-room  had  become  crowded.  By  prolonging  the  time  of  con- 
tinuance, those  who  go  out  from  the  school  hereafter  will  be  better 
qualified  for  their  work. 

The  average  age  of  the  pupils,  the  last  term,  was  22  years.  A  large 
proportion  of  them  had  taught  more  or  less.  Two  have  attended,  the 
last  year,  who  have  taught  twenty  terms  each;  and  a  large  number 
that  have  taught  from  five  to  ten  terms. 

The  wages  of  teachers  have  very  much  increased  within  three  years. 
Several  young  men  are  receiving  $40  per  month,  and  board  themselves, 
instead  of  $25  and  $30;  and  several  young  ladies  are  receiving  $3.50 
per  week,  and  board,  instead  of  $2. 


STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOLS    IN    MASSACHUSETTS    IN    1850.  87 

The  pupils  during  the  last  year  have  been  from  the  following  coun- 
ties:— From  Berkshire,  18;  from  Hampden,  41;  from  Hampshire,  12; 
from  Franklin,  15;  from  Worcester,  15;  from  Middlesex,  5;  from  Es- 
sex, 2;  from  Norfolk,  3;  from  Bristol,  1;  from  the  other  states,  7. 

Mr.  D.  S.  Rowe,  the  principal,  is  assisted  by  Mr.  E.  G.  Beckwith,  a 
graduate  of  college,  and  Miss  J.  E.  Avery.  The  instruction  is  thorough 
and  accurate,  and  the  discipline  good. 

The  number  of  males  in  the  school,  the  last  year,  has  been  31,  and 
the  number  of  females,  88. 

The  pupils,  with  very  few  exceptions,  have  redeemed  their  pledge  to 
teach  in  the  schools  of  this  Commonwealth;  and  as  great  a  proportion 
of  them  as  could  reasonably  be  expected,  are  excellent  teachers." 

The  visitors  of  this  school  are  Rev.  E.  Davis,  D.D.,  of 
Westfield,  and  Rev.  Mark  Hopkins,  D.D.,  President  of  Wil- 
liamstown  College. 


EXTRACT 

FROM   THE 

Fourteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Secretary  (Rev.  Barnas  Sears,  D.  D.) 
of  the  Board  of  Education. 

The  State  Normal  Schools  are  in  a  flourishing  and  prosperous  con- 
dition. Notwithstanding  the  increased  rigor  exercised  in  the  examina- 
tion of  candidates  for  admission,  and  the  extension,  in  two  of  them, 
of  the  required  period  of  study,  the  numbers  in  attendance  are  about 
as  large  as  ever.  The  fears  entertained  by  many,  that  the  increase  of 
expense,  occasioned  by  a  more  protracted  course  of  study,  would  ma- 
terially diminish  the  attendance,  are  shown  to  be  groundless.  The  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  a  professional  education  for  teachers  is  becoming  so 
strong  in  the  community,  and  the  public  mind  is  becoming  so  enlight- 
ened in  respect  to  the  character  of  the  teachers  required,  and  the  pol- 
icy to  be  pursued  in  the  choice  of  them  and  in  remunerating  their  ser- 
vices, that  teachers  are  compelled  either  to  go  through  a  more  thorough 
course  of  preparation,  or  abandon  the  occupation.  In  order  to  keep  even 
pace  with  the  progress  of  public  opinion  in  regard  to  an  improved  sys- 
tem of  education,  the  Normal  Schools  will  need  to  be  gradually  elevated 
till  they  shall  reach  that  point  which  is  best  adapted  to  teachers  de- 
signed for  the  common  district  school.  It  will  be  a  question  worthy  of 
mature  deliberation,  whether  the  higher  position  designed  to  be  given 
to  the  Normal  Schools,  shall  not  be  attained  rather  by  raising  the  req- 
uisitions for  entrance  than  by  prolonging  the  term  of  study.  I  see  no 
good  reason  why  the  state  should  be  at  the  expense  of  giving,  in  the 
Normal  Schools,  so  much  of  that  kind  of  instruction  for  which  ample 
provision  is  already  made  in  the  higher  public  schools.  The  Normal 
Schools,  to  answer  their  original  design,  must  aim  more  at  furnishing 
that  peculiar  training  which  teachers  require,  and  which  the  public 
schools  can  not  give.  Then  the  necessity  of  their  existence  will  be  ap- 
parent to  all,  and  no  other  schools  or  institutions  will  complain  of  be- 
ing forced  into  competition  with  those  which  enjoy  state  patronage.  A 
portion  of  the  time  which  is  now  spent  in  teaching  the  elements  of 
arithmetic,  grammar,  geography,  reading  and  orthography,  might  be 
saved  for  those  higher  objects  for  which  more  particularly  Normal 
Schools  were  established.  Before  many  years  more  shall  have  passed 
away,  three  classes,  each  having  a  half  year's  course  of  study,  might 
be  formed  in  these  schools.  The  first  might  be  devoted  to  a  critical  re- 
view and  thorough  mastery  of  the  studies  to  be  taught  in  common 
schools,  with  such  collateral  branches  as  should  be  deemed  necessary; 
the  second,  to  a  philosophical  and  systematic  course  of  instruction  in 
didactics,  or  the  theory  of  teaching;  the  third,  to  the  practice  of  teach- 
ing under  the  immediate  and  constant  inspection  of  a  superior.  The 
arrangement  here  proposed  would  require  that  a  greater  degree  of  at- 
tention be  paid  to  the  model  schools.  But  it  would  remove  the  embar- 
rassment now  caused  by  the  interruption  of  the  studies  of  the  class, 
portions  of  which  are  called  away  to  teach,  and  would  render  the  time 
spent  in  teaching  in  the  model  school  much  more  profitable  both  to 
teacher  and  pupil.  The  model  school,  which  may  just  as  well  be  one  of 
the  public  schools  as  any  other,  should  have  its  own  full  corps  of 
teachers.  The  notion  of  employing  pupils  from  the  Normal  Schools,  in 
rotation,  in  place  of  an  assistant  teacher,  merely  because  it  is  more 
economical,  is  unworthy  of  the  liberal  policy  of  the  state.  When  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Normal  School  enters  the  model  school,  the  regular  teacher 
or  teachers  of  the  latter  should  not  be  relieved  at  all  from  duty.  On 
the  contrary,  such  teacher  should  proceed  as  usual,  and  the  learner 


90  DR.  BEAKS'  REPORT  FOR  1850. 

should  stand  by  and  carefully  observe  the  process,  and  afterward  in- 
quire for  the  reasons  of  it,  if  they  should  not  be  fully  understood  at 
the  time.  After  a  suitable  period  of  observation,  the  learner  should  un- 
dertake to  give  a  lesson,  or  some  part  of  one,  the  principal  teacher 
standing  by,  noticing  the  manner  in  which  the  instruction  is  given, 
and  being  ready  at  any  moment  to  resume  the  exercise.  Two  important 
objects  would  be  gained  by  such  an  arrangement.  First,  the  school 
itself  would  not  suffer  in  its  interests  from  surrendering  its  classes  to 
be  experimented  on  by  young  teachers,  but  would  rather  be  benefited 
by  having  all  its  exercises  conducted  with  reference  to  illustrating  the 
best  methods  of  teaching.  In  the  second  place,  the  learner  would  occupy 
the  place  of  an  apprentice,  working  every  moment  under  the  observa- 
tion and  guidance  of  a  master. 

Provision  has  recently  been  made  for  advanced  classes  in  the  Normal 
Schools,  and  several  persons  have  availed  themselves  of  it  during  the 
past  year.  It  is  evident  that  the  number  of  such  will  be  constantly  in- 
creasing, and  will  require  more  of  the  teacher's  time  than  can  be  given 
them  without  abstracting  it  too  much  from  the  regular  classes.  If  such 
an  appendage  is  to  be  permanently  attached  to  the  Normal  Schools,  it 
will  be  necessary  to  enlarge  the  number  of  instructors  to  correspond 
with  the  additional  amount  of  labor  imposed.  Perhaps  no  better  course 
can  be  recommended  for  the  present.  A  question  of  great  importance, 
however,  here  presents  itself  for  consideration,  namely,  whether  it 
would  not  be  expedient  to  make  one  of  our  Normal  Schools, — that  at 
Bridgewater,  for  example, — exclusively  a  school  for  males,  designed  to 
form  a  higher  class  of  teachers  for  a  corresponding  grade  of  schools. 
Then  each  Normal  School  would  have  its  distinctive  character,  that  at 
West  Newton  being  for  females  only,  and  that  at  Westfield  for  both 
sexes,  and  every  person,  who  should  wish  to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a 
Normal  School  training,  could  find  a  school  adapted  to  his  particular 
wants.  The  difference  between  the  common  district  school  and  the  cen- 
tral school  of  our  more  populous  towns  and  grammar  school  of  the 
cities,  is  becoming  so  great,  that  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  look  to  the 
same  class  of  individuals  for  teachers  in  them  all.  Besides,  the  law  re- 
quiring the  establishing  of  high  schools,  is  rapidly  creating  a  demand 
for  a  description  of  teachers  which  none  of  our  institutions  furnish. 
The  colleges  do  not  educate  men  with  reference  to  the  business  of 
teaching.  A  young  graduate,  without  any  experience  in  teaching,  is  but 
little  better  prepared  to  take  charge  of  a  high  school  than  he  is  to 
practice  at  the  bar.  Nor  do  our  Normal  Schools  give  the  amount  of  edu- 
cation requisite  for  teachers  aspiring  to  a  place  in  the  high  school.  It 
is  at  this  moment  more  difficult  to  procure  suitable  teachers  for  high 
schools  than  for  any  other  class  of  schools.  The  choice  ordinarily  lies 
between  experienced  teachers  of  limited  education,  and  men  of  liberal 
education,  who  either  have  had  no  experience  and  yet  wish  to  be- 
come teachers,  or,  having  had  some  practice  in  teaching  while  earning 
the  money  to  pay  their  college  bills,  wish  now  to  earn  still  more  to 
enable  them  to  study  a  profession.  It  is  not  safe  for  towns  to  open  high 
schools  under  such  auspices,  and  few  committees  are  willing  to  expose 
themselves  and  their  enterprise  to  these  hazards. 

If  there  were  a  Normal  School  of  a  higher  order,  persons,  who  had 
already  received  a  good  literary  and  scientific  education  elsewhere, 
might  repair  to  it  and  attend  exclusively  to  the  theory  and  practice  of 
teaching.  Even  graduates  from  the  colleges,  who  propose  to  become 
teachers,  would,  in  many  instances,  avail  themselves  of  such  opportun- 
ities for  studying  the  art  which  they  are  to  practice  for  life.  An  air 
exclusively  professional  would  thus  be  given  to  the  school,  and  a  short- 
er period  of  attendance  might  suffice  than  would  be  necessary  in  the 
other  Normal  Schools. 


OUTLINE 

OF  AN  INSTITUTION  FOR  THE  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS. 

BY  JAMBS  G.   CARTEB. 

The  following  outline  constitutes  Essay  VI.  of  Essays  on 
Popular  Education,  published  by  Mr.  Carter  in  the  Boston 
Patriot,  with  the  signature  of  Franklin,  in  the  winter  of 
1824-25.  The  series  was  commenced  on  the  17th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1824;  and  the  essay  containing  the  outline  was  pub- 
lished on  the  10th  and  15th  of  February,  1825. 

It  will  do  but  little  good  for  the  Legislature  of  the  State  to  make 
large  appropriations  directly  for  the  support  of  schools,  till  a  judicious 
expenditure  of  them  can  be  insured.  And  in  order  to  do  this,  we  must 
have  skillful  teachers  at  hand.  It  will  do  but  little  good  to  class  the 
children  till  we  have  instructors  properly  prepared  to  take  charge  of 
the  classes.  It  will  do  absolutely  no  good  to  constitute  an  independent 
tribunal  to  decide  on  the  qualifications  of  teachers,  while  they  have 
not  had  the  opportunities  necessary  for  coming  up  to  the  proper  stand- 
ard. And  it  will  do  no  good  to  overlook  and  report  upon  their  success, 
when  we  know  beforehand  that  they  have  not  the  means  of  success.  It 
would  be  beginning  wrong,  too,  to  build  houses  and  to  tell  your  young 
and  inexperienced  instructors  to  teach  this  or  to  teach  that  subject, 
however  desirable  a  knowledge  of  such  subjects  might  be,  while  it  is 
obvious  that  they  cannot  know  how,  properly,  to  teach  any  subject.  The 
science  of  teaching — for  it  must  be  made  a  science — is  first  in  the  or- 
der of  nature,  to  be  inculcated.  And  it  is  to  this  point  that  the  public 
attention  must  first  be  turned,  to  effect  any  essential  improvement. 

And  here  let  me  remark  upon  a  distinction  in  the  qualifications  of 
teachers,  which  has  never  been  practically  made;  though  it  seems  as- 
tonishing that  it  has  so  long  escaped  notice.  I  allude  to  the  distinction 
between  the  possession  of  knowledge,  and  the  ability  to  communicate 
it  to  other  minds.  When  we  are  looking  for  a  teacher,  we  inquire  how 
much  he  knows,  not  how  much  he  can  communicate;  as  if  the  latter 
qualification  were  of  no  consequence  to  us.  Now  it  seems  to  me  that 
parents  and  children,  to  say  the  least,  are  as  much  interested  in  the 
latter  qualification  of  their  instructor  as  in  the  former. 

Though  a  teacher  cannot  communicate  more  knowledge  than  he 
possesses,  yet  he  may  possess  much,  and  still  be  able  to  impart  but  lit- 
tle. And  the  knowledge  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  could  be  of  but  trifling  use 
to  a  school,  while  it  was  locked  up  safely  in  the  head  of  a  country 
schoolmaster.  So  far  as  the  object  of  a  school  or  of  instruction,  there- 
fore, is  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  novel  as  the  opinion  may  seem, 
it  does  appear  to  me  that  both  parents  and  pupils  are  even  more  inter- 
ested in  the  part  of  their  teacher's  knowledge  which  they  will  be  likely 
to  get,  than  in  the  part  which  they  certainly  cannot  get. 

One  great  object  in  the  education  of  teachers  which  it  is  so  desirable 
on  every  account  to  attain,  is  to  establish  an  intelligible  language  of 
communication  between  the  instructor  and  his  pupil,  and  enable  the 
former  to  open  his  head  and  his  heart,  and  infuse  into  the  other  some 
of  the  thoughts  and  feelings  which  lie  hid  there.  Instructors  and  pupils 
do  not  understand  each  other.  They  do  not  speak  the  same  language. 
They  may  use  the  same  words;  but  this  can  hardly  be  called  the  same 
language,  while  they  attach  to  them  such  very  different  meanings.  We 
must  either,  by  some  magic  or  supernatural  power,  bring  children  at 


92  MR.    CARTER    ON    EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS. 

once  to  comprehend  all  our  abstract  and  difficult  terms,  or  our  teach- 
ers must  unlearn  themselves,  and  come  down  to  the  comprehension  of 
children.  One  of  these  alternatives  is  only  difficult,  while  the  other  is 
impossible. 

The  direct,  careful  preparation  of  instructors  for  the  profession  of 
teaching,  must  surmount  this  difficulty;  and  I  doubt  if  there  be  any 
other  way  in  which  it  can  be  surmounted.  When  instructors  under- 
stand their  profession,  that  is,  in  a  word,  when  they  understand  the 
philosophy  of  the  infant  mind,  what  powers  are  earliest  developed,  and 
what  studies  are  best  adapted  to  their  development,  then  it  will  be 
time  to  lay  out  and  subdivide  their  work  into  an  energetic  system  of 
public  instruction.  Till  this  step  toward  a  reform,  which  is  preliminary 
in  its  very  nature,  be  taken,  every  other  measure  must  be  adopted  in 
the  dark;  and,  therefore,  be  liable  to  fail  utterly  of  its  intended  result. 
Houses,  and  funds,  and  books  are  all,  indeed,  important;  but  they  are 
only  the  means  of  enabling  the  minds  of  the  teachers  to  act  upon  the 
minds  of  the  pupils.  And  they  must,  inevitably,  fail  of  their  happiest 
effects,  till  the  minds  of  the  teachers  have  been  prepared  to  act  upon 
those  of  their  pupils  to  the  greatest  advantage. 

If,  then,  the  first  step  toward  a  reform  in  our  system  of  popular  edu- 
cation be  the  scientific  preparation  of  teachers  for  the  free  schools,  our 
next  inquiry  becomes,  How  can  we  soonest  and  most  perfectly  achieve 
an  object  on  every  account  so  desirable?  The  ready  and  obvious  answer 
is,  establish  an  institution  for  the  very  purpose.  To  my  mind,  this 
seems  to  be  the  only  measure  which  will  insure  to  the  public  the  at- 
tainment of  the  object.  It  will  be  called  a  new  project.  Be  it  so.  The 
concession  does  not  prove  that  the  project  is  a  bad  one,  or  a  visionary, 
or  an  impracticable  one.  Our  ancestors  ventured  to  do  what  the  world 
had  never  done  before,  in  so  perfect  a  manner,  when  they  established 
the  free  schools.  Let  us  also  do  what  they  have  never  so  well  done  yet, 
and  establish  an  institution  for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  preparing  in- 
structors for  them.  This  is  only  a  second  part,  a  development  or  con- 
summation of  the  plan  of  our  fathers.  They  foresaw  the  effect  of  uni- 
versal intelligence  upon  national  virtue  and  happiness;  and  they  pro- 
jected the  means  of  securing  to  themselves  and  to  us  universal  educa- 
tion. They  wisely  did  a  new  thing  under  the  sun.  It  has  proved  to  be  a 
good  thing.  We  now  enjoy  the  results  of  their  labors,  and  we  are  sen- 
sible of  the  enjoyment.  Their  posterity  have  praised  them,  loudly 
praised  them,  for  the  wisdom  of  their  efforts.  Let  us,  then,  with  hints 
from  them,  project  and  accomplish  another  new  thing,  and  confer  as 
great  a  blessing  on  those  who  may  come  after  us.  Let  us  finish  the 
work  of  our  fathers,  in  regard  to  popular  education,  and  give  to  it  its 
full  effect.  Let  us  double,  for  we  easily  may,  the  happy  influences  of  an 
institution  which  has  already  attracted  so  much  notice  from  every  part 
of  our  country,  and  drawn  after  it  so  many  imitations,  and  send  it, 
thus  improved,  down  to  posterity  for  their  admiration. 

If  a  seminary  for  the  purpose  of  educating  teachers  scientifically  be 
essential  in  order  to  give  the  greatest  efficacy  to  our  system  of  popular 
education,  then,  in  the  progress  of  the  discussion,  the  three  following 
questions  arise  in  the  order  in  which  they  are  stated.  By  whom  should 
the  proposed  institution  be  established?  What  would  be  its  leading 
features?  And  what  would  be  some  of  the  peculiar  advantages  to  the 
public  which  would  result  from  it?  To  answer  these  several  questions 
at  length  would  require  a  book;  while  I  have,  at  present,  only  leisure 
to  prepare  one  or  two  newspaper  essays.  A  few  hints,  therefore,  upon 
the  above  three  topics  are  all  that  I  dare  profess  to  give,  and  more  than 
I  fear  I  can  give,  either  to  my  own  satisfaction  or  that  of  those  readers 
who  may  have  become  interested  in  the  subject. 


MB.  CABTEB  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS.  93 

The  institution,  from  its  peculiar  purpose,  must  necessarily  be  both 
literary  and  scientific  in  its  character.  And  although,  with  its  design 
constantly  in  view,  we  could  not  reasonably  expect  it  to  add,  directly, 
much  to  the  stock  of  what  is  now  called  literature,  or  to  enlarge  much 
the  boundaries  of  what  is  now  called  science,  yet,  from  the  very  nature 
of  the  subject  to  which  it  would  be  devoted,  and  upon  which  it  would 
be  employed,  it  must  in  its  progress  create  a  kind  of  literature  of  its 
own,  and  open  a  new  science  somewhat  peculiar  to  itself — the  science 
of  the  development  of  the  infant  mind,  and  the  science  of  communicat- 
ing knowledge  from  one  mind  to  another  while  in  a  different  stage  of 
maturity.  The  tendency  of  the  inquiries  which  must  be  carried  on,  and 
the  discoveries  which  would  be  constantly  made,  in  a  seminary  for  this 
new  purpose,  would  be  to  give  efficacy  to  the  pursuits  of  other  literary 
and  scientific  institutions.  Its  influence,  therefore,  though  indirect, 
would  be  not  the  less  powerful  upon  the  cause  of  literature  and  the 
sciences  generally.  These  remarks  may  seem  to  anticipate  another  part 
of  my  subject;  but  they  are  introduced  here  to  show  that  a  seminary 
for  the  education  of  teachers  would  stand,  at  least,  on  as  favorable  a  foot- 
ing in  relation  to  the  public,  as  other  literary  and  scientific  institutions. 
It  seems  now  to  be  believed  that  the  Legislature  of  the  State  are  the 
rightful  proprietors  of  all  public  institutions  for  the  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge. And  if  they  are  of  any,  they  certainly  ought  to  be  of  one  for  such 
a  purpose.  Because  there  are  none  in  which  the  public  would  be  more 
deeply  interested.  There  are  none  which  would  tend  so  much  to  diffuse 
knowledge  among  the  whole  mass  of  the  people.  And  this,  as  has  been 
before  remarked,  is  a  solemn  duty  enjoined  upon  our  government  by 
the  constitution  under  which  they  are  organized,  and  from  which  they 
derive  their  authority.  Besides,  it  is  the  first  impulse  of  every  govern- 
ment, operating  as  quickly  and  steadily  as  instinct,  to  provide  for  its 
own  preservation.  And  it  seems  to  be  conceded  on  all  hands,  by  the 
friends  as  well  as  the  enemies  of  freedom,  that  a  government  like  our 
own  can  only  exist  among  a  people  generally  enlightened;  the  only 
question  as  to  the  permanency  of  free  institutions  being,  whether  it  be 
possible  to  make  and  to  keep  the  whole  population  of  a  nation  so  well 
educated  as  the  existence  of  such  institutions  supposes  and  requires. 

Our  government,  therefore,  are  urged  by  every  motive  which  the 
constitution  can  enjoin  or  self-preservation  suggest,  to  see  to  it  that 
knowledge  is  generally  diffused  among  the  people.  Upon  this  subject  of 
popular  education,  a  free  government  must  be  arbitrary;  for  its  exist- 
ence depends  upon  it.  The  more  ignorant  and  degraded  people  are,  the 
less  do  they  feel  the  want  of  instruction,  and  the  less  will  they  seek  it. 
And  these  are  the  classes  of  a  community  which  always  increase  the 
fastest  up  to  the  very  point,  where  the  means  of  subsistence  fail.  So 
that  if  any  one  class  of  men,  however  small,  be  suffered  as  a  body  to 
remain  in  ignorance,  and  to  allow  their  families  to  grow  up  without  in- 
struction, they  will  increase  in  a  greater  ratio,  compared  with  their 
numbers,  than  the  more  enlightened  classes,  till  they  have  a  prepon- 
derance of  physical  power.  And  when  this  preponderance  becomes  over- 
whelming, what  hinders  a  revolution  and  an  arbitrary  government,  by 
which  the  mind  of  a  few  can  control  the  physical  strength  of  the  many? 

If  this  reasoning  be  correct,  a  free  government  must  look  to  it  be- 
times, that  popular  ignorance  does  not  gain  upon  them.  If  it  do,  there 
is  a  thistle  in  the  vineyard  of  the  republic,  which  will  grow  and  spread 
itself  in  every  direction,  till  it  cannot  be  eradicated.  The  ignorant  must 
be  allured  to  learn  by  every  motive  which  can  be  offered  to  them.  And 
if  they  will  not  thus  be  allured,  they  must  be  taken  by  the  strong  arm 
of  government  and  brought  out,  willing  or  unwilling,  and  made  to 
learn,  at  least,  enough  to  make  them  peaceable  and  good  citizens.  It 
would  be  well,  indeed,  if  the  possibility  could  be  held  out  to  all  of  sue- 


94  MB.  CABTEB  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS. 

cessfully  aspiring  to  responsible  stations  in  society.  A  faint  hope  is 
better  than  despair.  And  though  only  one  chance  in  a  thousand  be  fav- 
orable, even  that  is  worth  something  to  stimulate  the  young  to  greater 
efforts,  to  become  worthy  of  distinction.  The  few  who,  under  all  the 
disadvantages  which  adverse  circumstances  impose,  can  find  their  way 
by  untired  perseverance  to  places  of  trust  and  influence  in  the  repub- 
lic, serve  to  give  identity  of  feeling,  of  purpose,  and  pursuit  to  the 
whole.  They  harmonize  and  bind  together  all  those  different  and  dis- 
tant classes  of  the  community,  between  which  fretful  jealousies  nat- 
urally subsist. 

These  are  hints,  only,  at  an  argument,  perhaps  unintelligible  ones,  to 
establish  the  principle,  that  free  governments  are  the  proprietors  of  all 
literary  and  scientific  institutions,  so  far  as  they  have  the  tendency  to 
diffuse  knowledge  generally  among  the  people.  The  free  schools  of 
Massachusetts,  as  the  most  efficient  means  of  accomplishing  that  ob- 
ject, should  therefore  be  the  property  and  the  peculiar  care  of  govern- 
ment. An  argument  will,  at  once,  be  drawn  from  these  principles  why 
they  should  assume  the  direction  of  the  schools,  so  far  as  to  insure  to 
the  people  over  whom  they  are  appointed  to  preside,  competent  teach- 
ers of  them.  And  as  this  is  the  main  purpose  of  the  proposed  institu- 
tion, the  reasoning  seems  to  be  conclusive  why  they  should  be  its  pro- 
prietor, or,  at  least,  its  patron  and  protector. 

An  institution  for  the  education  of  teachers,  as  has  been  before  in- 
timated, would  form  a  part,  and  a  very  important  part,  of  the  free- 
school  system.  It  would  be,  moreover,  precisely  that  portion  of  the  sys- 
tem which  should  be  under  the  direction  of  the  State,  whether  the 
others  are  or  not.  Because  we  should  thus  secure  at  once,  a  uniform, 
intelligent,  and  independent  tribunal  for  decision  on  the  qualifications 
of  teachers.  Because  we  should  thus  relieve  the  clergy  of  an  invidious 
task,  and  insure  to  the  public  competent  teachers,  if  such  could  be 
found  or  prepared.  An  institution  for  this  purpose  would  become,  by 
its  influence  on  society,  and  particularly  on  the  young,  an  engine  to 
sway  the  public  sentiment,  the  public  morals,  and  the  public  religion, 
more  powerful  than  any  other  in  the  possession  of  government.  It 
should,  therefore,  be  responsible  immediately  to  them.  And  they  should 
carefully  overlook  it,  and  prevent  its  being  perverted  to  other  purposes, 
directly  or  indirectly,  than  those  for  which  it  is  designed.  It  should  be 
emphatically  the  State's  institution.  And  its  results  would  soon  make 
it  the  State's  favorite  and  pride,  among  other  literary  and  scientific 
institutions.  The  Legislature  of  the  State  should,  therefore,  establish 
and  build  it  up,  without  waiting  for  individuals,  at  great  private  sacri- 
fices, to  accomplish  the  work.  Such  would  be  the  influence  of  an  insti- 
tution for  the  education  of  teachers;  and  such  is  the  growing  convic- 
tion of  the  strength  of  early  associations  and  habits,  that  it  cannot  be 
long  before  the  work  will  be  begun  in  some  form.  If  it  be  not  under- 
taken by  the  public  and  for  public  purposes,  it  will  be  undertaken  by 
individuals  for  private  purposes. 

The  people  of  Massachusetts  are  able  and  willing,  yea,  more  than 
willing,  they  are  anxious  to  do  something  more  for  popular  education, 
for  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  generally.  The  only  questions  with  them 
are  how  and  where  can  means  be  applied  to  the  purpose  to  the  greatest 
advantage.  It  may  safely  be  submitted,  by  the  friends  of  the  free 
schools,  to  a  republican  people  and  their  republican  government,  which 
institutions  on  comparison  most  deserve  the  public  bounty;  those 
whose  advantages  can  be  enjoyed  but  by  a  few,  or  those  which  are  open 
to  the  whole  population;  those  which  have  for  their  main  objects  good 
that  is  remote,  or  those  whose  happy  influences  are  felt  at  once, 
through  the  whole  community.  Which  institutions  deserve  the  first 
consideration,  and  the  most  anxious  attention  of  a  popular  govern- 


MB.  CARTER  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS.  95 

ment,  those  which  will  place  a  few  scholars  and  philologists  upon  a 
level  with  the  Germans  in  a  knowledge  of  Greek  accents,  or  those 
which  will  put  our  whole  people  upon  the  level  of  enlightened  men  in 
their  practical  knowledge  of  common  things?  These  objects  may  all  be 
important  to  us.  But  the  former  will  be  provided  for  by  individuals; 
the  latter  are  the  peculiar  care  of  government. 

The  next  question,  mentioned  above,  as  arising  in  the  progress  of 
this  discussion,  was,  what  would  be  the  leading  features  of  an  institu- 
tion for  the  education  of  teachers.  If  the  institution  were  to  be  found- 
ed by  the  State,  upon  a  large  scale,  the  following  parts  would  seem  to 
be  obviously  essential.  1.  An  appropriate  library,  with  a  philosophical 
apparatus.  2.  A  principal  and  assistant  professor  in  the  different  de- 
partments. 3.  A  school  for  children  of  different  ages,  embracing  both 
those  desiring  a  general  education,  and  those  designed  particularly  for 
teachers.  4.  A  Board  of  Commissioners,  or  an  enlightened  body  of  men 
representing  the  interests  and  the  wishes  of  the  public. 

1.  A  library  should  of  course  be  selected  with  particular  reference  to 
the  objects  of  the  institution.  It  would  naturally  and  necessarily  con- 
tain the  approved  authors  on  the  science  of  education  in  its  widest 
sense.  It  would  embrace  works  of  acknowledged  merit  in  the  various 
branches  of  literature  and  science  intimately  connected  with  educa- 
tion; such  as  anatomy  and  physiology,  the  philosophy  of  the  human 
mind  and  heart,  and  the  philosophy  of  language. 

Physical  education  forms  a  very  essential  part  of  the  subject,  and 
should  be  thoroughly  understood.  This  branch  includes  the  develop- 
ment of  all  the  organs  of  the  body.  And  works  upon  the  physiology  of 
children  should  be  added  to  the  library.  Books  on  gymnastics,  contain- 
ing directions  for  particular  exercises  adapted  to  the  development  of 
the  several  organs,  belong  to  the  library  of  the  accomplished  instruct- 
or, as  well  as  to  that  of  the  surgeon.  Indeed,  if  the  former  properly  use 
them,  they  will  enable  him  to  give  a  firmness  to  the  parts  of  the  body 
which  may,  perhaps,  supersede  the  necessity  of  the  interference  of  the 
latter  to  set  them  right  in  manhood. 

The  philosophy  of  the  infant  mind  must  be  understood  by  the  in- 
structor before  much  progress  can  be  made  in  the  science  of  education; 
for  a  principal  branch  of  the  science  consists  in  forming  the  mind.  And 
the  skill  of  the  teacher  in  this  department  is  chiefly  to  be  seen  in  his 
judicious  adaptation  of  means  to  the  development  of  the  intellectual 
faculties.  Every  book,  therefore,  which  would  aid  in  an  analysis  of  the 
youthful  mind,  should  be  placed  in  the  library  of  the  proposed  institu- 
tion. 

The  human  heart,  the  philosophy  of  its  passions  and  its  affections, 
must  be  studied  by  those  who  expect  to  influence  those  passions,  and 
form  those  affections.  This  branch  of  the  subject  includes  the  govern- 
ment of  children,  especially  in  the  earliest  stages  of  their  discipline. 
The  success  of  the  teacher  here  depends  upon  the  good  judgment  with 
which  he  arranges  and  presents  to  his  pupils  the  motives  that  will 
soonest  move  them,  and  most  permanently  influence  their  actions.  The 
mistaken  or  wicked  principles  of  parents  and  instructors,  in  this  de- 
partment of  education,  have,  no  doubt,  perverted  the  dispositions  of 
many  hopeful  children.  If  successful  experience  has  been  recorded,  It 
should  be  brought  to  the  assistance  of  those  who  must  otherwise  act 
without  experience. 

Lastly,  the  study  of  the  philosophy  of  language  would  be  essential  to 
the  scientific  teacher.  The  term  language  is  not  here  understood  to 
mean  a  class  of  words  called  Greek,  or  another  class  of  words  called 
Latin,  or  even  that  class  of  words  which  we  call  English.  It  means 
something  more  general,  and  something  which  can  hardly  be  defined. 


96  MB.  CARTER  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS. 

It  embraces  all  the  means  we  use  to  excite  in  the  minds  of  others  the 
ideas  which  we  have  already  in  our  own  minds.  These,  whatever  they 
are,  are  included  in  the  general  definition  of  language.  This  is  a  great 
desideratum  in  our  systems  of  education.  We  do  not  possess  a  language 
by  which  we  can  produce  precisely  the  idea  in  a  pupil  which  we  have 
in  our  own  mind,  and  which  we  wish  to  excite  in  his.  And  impatient 
and  precipitate  teachers  quite  often  quarrel  with  their  pupils,  because 
they  do  not  arrive  at  the  same  conclusions  with  themselves,  when,  if  they 
could  but  look  into  their  minds,  they  would  find  that  the  ideas  with 
which  they  begin  to  reason,  or  which  enter  into  their  processes  of 
reasoning,  are  altogether  different.  Every  book  or  fact,  therefore,  which 
would  do  anything  to  supply  this  desideratum,  or  enable  the  teacher 
better  to  understand  precisely  the  idea  which  he  excites  in  the  mind 
of  his  pupils,  should  be  collected  in  the  instructor's  library. 

2.  The  institution  should  have  its  principal  and  its  assistant  profes- 
sors. The  government  and  instruction  of  a  seminary  for  the  education 
of  teachers  would  be  among  the  most   responsible   situations  which 
could  be  assigned  to  men  in  literary  or  scientific  pursuits.  As  many  of 
the  objects  of  the  institution  would  be  new,  so  the  duties  of  its  instruct- 
ors would  also  be  new.  No  commanding  minds  have  gone  before  pre- 
cisely in  the  proposed  course,  and  struck  out  a  path  which  others  may 
easily  follow.  There  are  no  rules  laid  down  for  the  direction  of  those 
who  will  not  think  upon,  or  who  cannot  understand  the  subject.  Men 
must,  therefore,  be  brought  to  the  task  who  have  the  ability  to  observe 
accurately  and  to  discriminate  nicely.  They  must  also  collect  the  re- 
sults of  what  experience  they  can  from  books  and  from  others,  in  or- 
der to  enable  themselves  to  form  some  general  principles  for  the  di- 
rection of  their  pupils,  who  will  go  abroad  to  carry  their  improvements 
to  others.  It  is  not  supposed  for  a  moment  that  all  who  may  receive 
instruction  at  the  proposed  institution  with  the  intention  of  becoming 
teachers,  will  necessarily  be  made  thereby  adepts  in  the  science,  any 
more  than  it  is  believed  that  all  who  happen  to  reside  four  years  with- 
in the  walls  of  a  college  are  necessarily  made  expert  in  the  mysteries 
of  syllogisms  and  the  calculus.  But  having  seen  correct  general  prin- 
ciples of  education  successfully  reduced  to  practice,  they  may,  at  least, 
become  artists  in  the  profession,  and  be  able  to  teach  pretty  well  upon  a 
system,  the  philosophy  of  which  they  cannot  thoroughly  comprehend. 

3.  A  school  of  children  and  youth  of  different  ages  and  pursuing  dif- 
ferent branches  of  study  would  form  an  essential  part  of  the  institu- 
tion. In  the  early  stages  of  the  education  of  children,  the  discipline 
should  consist  almost  wholly  of  such  exercises  as  serve  to  develop  the 
different  faculties  and  strengthen  all  the  powers  of  the  mind.  And  in 
the  subsequent  education  of  youth,  when  the  discipline  comes  to  con- 
sist partly  in  the  development  of  the  mind,  and  partly  in  the  communi- 
cation of  knowledge,  the   course  of   instruction   would   be   the   same, 
whether  the  pupil  were  destined  to  be  a  teacher  or  not.  The  objects  of 
the  institution  do  not,  therefore,  become  peculiar  till  after  the  pupil 
has  acquired  a  certain  degree  of  freedom  and  strength  of  mind;   nor 
till  after  he  has  made  the  acquisition  of  the  requisite  amount  of  knowl- 
edge for  the  profession  of  teacher.  Though  a  pupil  would  necessarily 
imbibe  a  good  deal  of  clearness  and  method  in  his  intellectual  exercises 
by  submitting  the  direction  of  them  to  a  skillful  instructor,  the  study 
of  the  science  of  teaching  cannot  properly  begin  till  he  changes  rela- 
tions with  those  about  him;   and,  instead  of  following  a  course  pre- 
scribed by  another,  and  exhibiting  the  powers  of  his  own  mind  with- 
out an  effort  to  take  cognizance  of  them,  he  assumes  to  look  down  upon 
humbler  minds,  to  direct  their  movements,  and  to  detect  and  classify 
the  phenomena  of  their  subtle  workings. 


MR.  CARTER  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS.  97 

After  the  young  candidate  for  an  instructor,  therefore,  has  acquired 
sufficient  knowledge  for  directing  those  exercises  and  teaching  those 
branches  which  he  wishes  to  profess,  he  must  then  begin  his  labors 
under  the  scrutinizing  eyes  of  one  who  will  note  his  mistakes  of  govern- 
ment and  faults  of  instruction,  and  correct  them.  The  experienced  and 
skillful  professor  of  the  science  will  observe  how  the  mind  of  the  young 
teacher  acts  upon  that  of  the  learner.  He  will  see  how  far  and  how 
perfectly  they  understand  each  other,  and  which  is  at  fault  if  they  do 
not  understand  each  other  at  all.  If  the  more  inexperienced  teacher 
should  attempt  to  force  upon  the  mind  of  a  child  an  idea  or  a  process 
of  reasoning  for  which  it  was  not  in  a  proper  state,  he  would  be 
checked  at  once,  and  told  of  his  fault;  and  thus,  perhaps,  the  pupil 
would  be  spared  a  disgust  for  a  particular  study,  or  an  aversion  to  all 
study.  As  our  earliest  experience  would  in  this  manner  be  under  the 
direction  of  those  wiser  than  ourselves,  it  would  the  more  easily  be 
classed  under  general  principles  for  our  direction  afterward.  This  part 
of  the  necessary  course  in  an  institution  for  the  education  of  teachers 
might  be  much  aided  by  lectures.  Children  exhibit  such  an  such  intel- 
lectual phenomena;  the  scientific  professor  of  education  can  explain 
those  phenomena,  and  tell  from  what  they  arise.  If  they  are  favorable, 
he  can  direct  how  they  are  to  be  encouraged  and  turned  to  account  in 
the  development  and  formation  of  the  mind.  If  they  are  unfavorable, 
he  can  explain  by  what  means  they  are  to  be  overcome  or  corrected. 
Seeing  intellectual  results,  he  can  trace  them,  even  through  complicat- 
ed circumstances,  to  their  causes;  or,  knowing  the  causes  and  circum- 
stances, he  can  predict  the  result  that  will  follow  them.  Thus  every 
day's  experience  would  be  carefully  examined,  and  made  to  limit  or 
extend  the  comprehension  of  the  general  principles  of  the  science.  Is 
there  any  other  process  or  method  than  this  to  arrive  at  a  philosophical 
system  of  education?  If  any  occurs  to  other  minds,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  public  may  soon  have  the  benefit  of  it. 

4.  The  fourth  branch,  which  I  mentioned  above  as  constituting  an 
important  part  of  an  institution  for  the  education  of  teachers,  was  a 
Board  of  Commissioners.  Although  they  would,  probably,  have  little  to 
do  with  the  immediate  government  and  instruction  of  the  institution, 
they  would  be  valuable  to  it  by  representing  the  wishes  of  the  com- 
munity, and  by  bringing  it  more  perfectly  in  contact  with  the  public  in- 
terests. Besides,  it  must  occur  to  every  one,  that  in  the  general  man- 
agement of  such  an  establishment,  many  of  the  transactions  would  re- 
quire characters  and  talents  very  different  from  those  that  would,  gen- 
erally, be  found  in  the  principal  or  professors.  Men  might  easily  be 
found  who  would  lecture  to  admiration,  and  yet  be  wholly  incompetent 
to  assume  the  general  direction  of  the  establishment.  The  professors, 
too,  would  always  want  assistance  and  authority,  in  determining  what 
acquisitions  should  be  required  for  admission  into  the  institution,  and 
what  proficiency  should  be  deemed  essential  in  the  candidates  before 
leaving  it  to  assume  the  business  of  teaching.  Upon  what  principles 
shall  the  school  be  collected?  How  shall  the  privilege  of  attending  as 
new  learners  in  the  science  of  education  be  settled  upon  applications 
from  different  parts  of  the  State  or  country?  These  and  many  similar 
questions  would  render  a  body  of  men,  distinct  from  the  professors, 
important  to  the  institution.  Many  decisions,  too,  must  necessarily  be 
made,  affecting  individual  and  private  interests.  This  would  be  an  in- 
vidious duty,  and  the  instructors  should  be  relieved  from  it  as  far  as 
possible.  It  is  confidently  believed  that  the  peculiar  advantages  to  be 
enjoyed  at  such  an  institution  by  children  and  youth  generally,  as  well 
as  by  those  designed  for  teachers,  would  command  a  price  sufficient  to 
defray  nearly  the  whole  expenses  of  the  establishment.  If  not  so,  then 

G 


98  MR.  CARTEK  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS. 

might  not  each  town  send  one  or  more  young  men  to  the  institution  to 
be  properly  educated  for  instructors,  and  require  them  in  return  to 
teach  their  public  schools  to  liquidate  the  expense?  All  these  means, 
however,  are  subjects  for  future  consideration,  and  are  to  be  devised 
after  the  utility  of  the  institution  has  been  demonstrated. 

The  peculiar  advantages  of  an  institution  for  the  education  of  teach- 
ers would  be  far  too  numerous  and  too  important  to  be  either  embraced 
or  enforced  in  the  space  which  remains  for  this  topic.  A  few,  therefore, 
of  the  most  obvious  ones  are  all  that  can  here  be  alluded  to.  One  ad- 
vantage, and  a  very  certain  one,  would  be  to  raise  the  character  of 
teachers  generally;  and  consequently,  in  the  same  degree,  the  char- 
acter of  the  schools  which  they  teach.  Let  us  pause,  for  a  moment,  to 
consider  to  what  an  extent  we  are  interested  in  every  thing  which 
affects  our  system  of  public  instruction;  and  hence  derive  a  motive, 
before  we  pass  on,  to  enforce  attention  to  every  suggestion  for  im- 
provement in  it. 

There  were  in  the  district  of  Massachusetts,  according  to  the  census 
of  1820,  five  hundred  and  twenty-three  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
nine  souls.  Of  this  number,  two  hundred  and  forty-one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  eleven  were  under  the  age  of  eighteen  years.  The  num- 
bers have  since  been  much  augmented.  If  the  population  has  increased 
only  as  fast  since  the  last  census  as  it  did  between  the  census  of  1810 
and  that  of  1820,  there  are  now,  in  round  numbers,  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  children  and  youth  in  Massachusetts  under  the  age 
of  eighteen  years.  This,  it  will  be  perceived,  amounts  to  almost  one- 
half  of  the  whole  number  of  souls.  If  we  take  from  the  older  those  be- 
tween the  ages  of  eighteen  and  twenty-one,  and  add  them  to  the  young- 
er part  of  the  population,  we  shall  find  at  least  half,  and  probably 
more  than  half  of  the  whole,  under  twenty-one  years. 

These  are  all  flexible  subjects  of  education,  in  its  most  comprehen- 
sive sense;  though  they  are  not  all  within  the  influence  of  that  part  of 
it  which  can  be  easily  controlled  by  legislation,  or  indeed  by  any  means 
except  by  an  enlightened  public  opinion.  A  few  of  this  great  number 
have  left  the  schools  and  all  direct  means  of  education,  and  entered 
upon  the  active  business  of  life.  And  a  portion  of  the  younger  part  of 
them  are  yet  subject  only  for  domestic  education.  But  after  these  de- 
ductions from  the  two  extremes,  it  will  not  be  extravagant  to  state, 
that  one-third  of  the  whole  population  are  of  a  suitable  age,  have  op- 
portunity, and  do  actually  attend  school  some  portion  of  the  year.  In 
Massachusetts  we  have  not  the  means  of  knowing  accurately  the  num- 
bers of  children  and  youth  who  attend  our  schools;  because  we  have 
no  system  of  returns  to  any  public  authority,  by  which  such  facts  can 
be  ascertained.  But  I  am  confirmed  in  the  belief  that  the  above  is  not 
an  extravagant  estimate,  by  two  circumstances.  One  of  them  is,  sev- 
eral towns  have  been  carefully  examined,  and  this  is  about  the  propor- 
tion of  the  population  found  in  their  schools.  And  the  other  is,  official 
documents  and  acknowledged  authorities  from  the  neighboring  State 
of  Connecticut  informs  us  that  one-third  of  the  population  attend  their 
free  schools  a  part  of  the  year.  And  probably  the  same  would  be  found 
to  be  true  of  New  York,  as  well  as  of  the  remainder  of  the  New  Eng- 
land States. 

These  are  statistical  facts.  Others  may  reason  upon  them  and  draw 
what  conclusions  they  can,  about  immigration,  the  future  prospects  of 
New  England,  her  comparative  influence  in  the  Union,  and  the  facili- 
ties she  affords  for  a  manufacturing  district.  They  have  been  intro- 
duced here  because  they  suggest  motives  stronger  than  any  others,  to 
enforce  attention  to  our  means  of  popular  education.  One-third  of  our 
whole  population  are  now  at  that  period  of  life  when  their  principles 
and  characters  are  rapidly  forming.  Habits,  both  moral  and  intellect- 


MB.  CARTER  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS.  99 

ual,  are  taking  their  direction,  and  acquiring  the  strength  of  age.  In  all 
this,  the  schools  must  have  a  deep  influence.  Both  the  degree  and  the 
kind  of  influence  are,  to  a  certain  extent,  within  our  control,  and  con- 
sequently depend  upon  our  efforts.  In  twenty  years,  and  surely  twenty 
years  are  not  beyond  the  ken  of  a  tolerably  clear-sighted  politician, 
this  part  of  our  population  will  succeed  to  most  of  the  responsible 
places  and  relations  of  their  fathers.  They  must  receive  all  that  we 
have  to  leave  for  them.  They  must  take  our  names,  and  attach  to 
them  honor  or  infamy.  They  must  possess  our  fortunes,  to  preserve 
or  disperse  them.  And  they  must  inherit  our  free  institutions, 
to  improve,  pervert,  or  destroy  them.  Here,  then,  are  the  strongest 
political  motives,  as  well  as  paternal  affection,  urging  upon  us  atten- 
tion to  all  the  means  of  forming  correctly  the  characters  of  those  who 
are  to  receive  from  us  our  choicest  blessings.  And  what  means 
within  our  control  can  be  devised  more  efficient  for  this  purpose,  than 
those  primary  seminaries  for  instruction,  where  the  mass  of  the  people 
must  receive  several  years  of  their  education?  Find,  if  they  are  to 
be  found,  or  create,  if  they  are  not  now  to  be  found,  a  class  of  teach- 
ers well  skilled  in  their  profession,  and  put  them  into  all  our  free 
schools.  What  an  effect  would  soon  be  produced  in  their  condition! 
And  what  a  renovating  influence  these  same  schools  would  soon  have 
upon  the  character  of  the  whole  people  who  have  access  to  them! 

But  these  are  general  advantages  of  a  good  class  of  teachers.  I 
promised  to  speak  of  the  peculiar  advantages  of  the  proposed  institu- 
tion to  produce  them.  The  library,  collected  with  particular  reference 
to  the  objects  of  the  institution,  would  contain  the  facts  of  the  science 
of  education  scattered  along  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Facts  are 
the  materials  of  philosophy.  And  we  cannot  philosophize,  safely,  till 
we  have  an  extensive  stock  before  us.  The  library  would  naturally 
collect,  not  only  those  phenomena  relating  to  the  subject  which  have 
already  been  observed,  but  also  the  records  of  those  which  must  be 
daily  passing  before  our  eyes.  Books  connected  with  and  collateral 
to  the  science  will  be  as  important  to  the  purposes  of  the  institution 
as  those  professedly  written  upon  the  subject.  And  frequently  they 
will  be  found  to  be  much  more  so.  Because  the  former  contain  the 
facts  and  the  phenomena,  while  the  latter  have  only  an  author's 
reasoning  and  conclusions  upon  them.  And  the  authors  who  have 
written  upon  education,  with  very  few  exceptions,  have  reasoned 
speciously,  but  from  very  limited  and  imperfect  inductions.  So  that 
their  conclusions,  though  they  may  be  corect,  as  far  as  they  had  the 
necessary  means  of  making  them  so,  are  liable  to  fail,  totally,  when 
reduced  to  practice  under  circumstances  a  little  different  from  those 
from  which  the  principles  have  been  formed.  We  want  more  ex- 
perience before  we  begin  to  reason  at  large  and  to  draw  sweeping 
conclusions  on  the  subject.  And  our  library  would  be  chiefly  valuable 
as  containing  that  experience,  or  the  results  of  it,  accurately  and 
authentically  recorded. 

But  the  conclusions  of  writers  on  the  subject,  though  received  and 
repeated  by  every  body,  are  not  binding  and  beyond  question,  till  we 
know  that  the  facts  from  which  they  reasoned  are  all  which  can 
affect  the  principles  that  they  deduce  from  them.  And  to  believe  that 
the  experience  of  two  thousand  years,  embracing  the  present  age, 
which  is  so  full  of  phenomena  of  all  kinds,  has  not  added  something 
to  our  means  of  a  copious  and  safe  induction  to  principles  of  educa- 
tion, requires  a  stretch  of  credulity  with  which  my  mind  is  not  gifted. 
It  will  be  safer,  as  a  general  rule,  to  assume  that  they  teach  us  what 
to  avoid,  rather  than  what  to  imitate. 


100  MR.  CARTER  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS. 

When  we  have  collected  the  means  of  reasoning  correctly,  which 
books  can  afford,  and  added  to  them  the  living  materials  of  philosophy, 
which  will  be  constantly  exhibited  in  the  school  which  is  to  form  a 
part  of  the  institution,  we  are  to  place  all  these  before  instructors  of 
discriminating  minds,  who  are  able  and  willing  to  observe  as  well  as 
to  reason.  We  are,  then,  to  turn  the  public  attention  toward  them 
in  good  earnest,  and  let  them  see  that  something  is  expected  from 
them.  There  is  a  moral  certainty,  under  such  circumstances,  that  the 
expectation  will  be  gratified.  When  the  public  attention  is  turned 
toward  any  subject,  all  the  ardent  and  discriminating  minds  act  in 
concert.  And  like  the  rays  of  the  sun  converged  to  a  point  by  a  lens, 
they  act  with  an  intensity  which  must  produce  an  effect. 

It  would  be  a  natural  result  of  the  proposed  institution  to  organize 
the  teachers  into  a  more  distinct  profession,  and  to  raise  the  general 
standard  of  their  intellectual  attainments.  It  would  therefore  con- 
centrate and  give  energy  and  direction  to  exertions  and  inquiries, 
which  are  now  comparatively  wasted  for  want  of  such  direction.  No 
one,  indeed,  can  now  forsee,  precisely,  what  effect  would  be  pro- 
duced upon  our  systems  of  education  and  principles  of  instruction  by 
subjecting  them  to  such  an  ordeal.  To  foretell  the  improvements  that 
would  be  made,  would  be  to  make  them,  and  supersede  the  necessity 
of  an  institution  for  the  purpose.  Though  the  necessity  would  still 
remain  for  some  similar  means  to  propagate  them  among  the  people. 
But  if  our  principles  of  education,  and  particularly  our  principles  of 
government  and  instruction,  are  not  already  perfect  we  may  confi- 
dently expect  improvements,  though  we  may  not  know,  precisely,  in 
what  they  will  consist. 

Many  persons  knew  twenty  years  ago  that  steam  was  expansive. 
But  who  foresaw  the  degree  to  which  its  expansion  could  be  raised, 
or  the  purposes  to  which  it  could  be  applied?  Public  attention  was 
turned  to  the  subject  in  earnest,  and  we  now  see  vessels  moving  in 
every  direction  by  its  power.  It  was  known  long  since  that  light  wood 
would  float,  and  water  run  down  hill.  But  who  foresaw,  twenty  years 
ago,  the  present  state  of  our  internal  improvements  by  means  of 
canals?  Public  attention  and  powerful  minds  were  directed  to  the 
subject,  and  we  now  see  boats  ascending  and  descending  our  moun- 
tains, and  traversing  our  continent  in  every  direction.  Those  who 
were  before  almost  our  antipodes,  have  now,  by  the  facilities  of  com- 
munication, become  our  neighbors.  The  most  intrepid  prophet  would 
hardly  have  dared,  even  ten  years  ago,  to  predict  the  present  state  of 
our  manufactories.  This  has  all  been  done,  because  it  could  be  done,  and 
many  minds  were  tunred  to  the  subject,  and  resolved  that  it  should 
be  done.  All  these  are  in  many  respects  analogous  cases,  and  go  to 
show  that  we  do  not  always  know  how  near  to  us  important  im- 
provements are;  and  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  direct  the  public  atten- 
tion to  a  subject  in  order  to  insure  some  inventions  in  it. 

A  great  variety  of  other  peculiar  advantages  to  the  public,  it  occurs 
to  me,  must  arise  from  an  institution  for  the  education  of  teachers. 
But  I  have  confined  myself  to  those  only  which  seemed  to  be 
the  most  striking  and  important.  All  others  will  be  found  to  be  in- 
volved, in  a  great  degree,  or  wholly,  in  those  which  I  have  stated. 
And  although  to  enumerate  them  might  add  some  new  motives  for 
attention  to  the  subject,  they  could  not  not  strengthen  much  the 
argument  in  favor  of  an  institution  somewhat  like  that  which  has  been 
above  described.  I  must  now  take  my  leave  of  the  subject  for  the  pres- 
ent; my  only  regrets  being  that  I  have  not  had  ability  to  do  more  jus- 
tice to  the  several  topics  which  I  have  discussed,  nor  time  to  do  more 
justice  to  my  own  views  of  them. 


MB.  CARTER  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHEB8.  101 

Mr.  Carter  commenced  his  public  labors  in  the  cause  of 
popular  education  by  the  publication  of  "Letters  to  the  Hon. 
William  Prescott,  LLD.,  on  the  Free  Schools  of  New  Eng- 
land, with  Remarks  on  the  Principles  of  Instruction,"  in 
1824.  In  the  same  year  he  commenced  in  the  Boston  Patriot, 
over  the  signature  of  "Franklin,"  a  series  of  Essays  on 
Popular  Education,  which  were  subsequently  published,  in 
a  pamphlet  form,  in  1826.  In  this  series  of  essays  he  first 
gave  to  the  public  his  plan  of  a  Teachers'  Seminary.  These 
essays,  and  particularly  his  views  on  the  principles  of  edu- 
cation as  a  science,  and  his  outline  of  an  institution  for  the 
education  of  teachers,  attracted  much  attention.  They  were 
very  ably  and  favorably  reviewed  in  the  United  States  Re- 
view, edited  by  Theophilus  Parsons,  and  of  which  Journal 
Mr.  Carter,  on  its  being  united  with  the  Literary  Gazette, 
became  editor,  and  devoted  a  portion  of  the  columes  to  an 
advocacy  of  educational  improvements  before  the  public. 
The  essays  were  made  the  basis  of  an  article  in  the  North 
American  Review,  for  1827,  by  Prof.  Ticknor,  and  through 
that  article  his  plan  was  made  known  to  the  English  public. 
Prof.  Bryce,  in  his  "Sketch  of  a  Plan  for  a  System  of  Na- 
tional Education  for  Ireland,"  published  in  London,  in  1828, 
speaks  of  the  "outline,"  as  the  "first  regular  publication  on 
the  subject"  of  the  professional  education  of  teachers  which 
he  had  heard  of. 

In  1827,  Mr.  Carter  presented  a  memorial  to  the  Legisla- 
ture, praying  for  aid  in  the  establishment  of  a  seminary  for 
the  education  of  teachers  with  a  model  school  attached.  The 
memorial  was  favorably  reported  on  by  a  committee,  of 
which  the  Hon.  William  B.  Calhoun,  of  Springfield,  Mass., 
was  chairman,  and  a  bill,  making  an  appropriation,  was 
lost  by  one  vote  in  the  Senate.  In  that  year,  the  town  of 
Lancaster  appropriated  a  portion  of  land,  and  the  use  of  an 
academy  building,  to  aid  him  in  carrying  out  his  plan  as  a 
private  enterprise.  He  purchased  several  dwelling-houses  to 
accommodate  his  pupils  and  teachers  with  lodgings  and 
board,  hired  assistants  who  were  to  be  taught  by  himself 
on  his  plan,  and  opened  his  school.  Within  a  few  months 
after  his  school  opened,  the  people  of  Lancaster,  who  did 
not  comprehend  the  full  and  ultimate  public  benefits  of  the 
new  institution,  began  to  manifest  opposition,  and  threw 
such  obstacles  in  his  way,  that  he  was  obliged  to  abandon 
his  project,  as  a  public  enterprise,  after  having  embarrassed 
himself  by  his  pecuniary  outlays  for  buildings  and  teachers. 
He,  however,  continued  to  give  instruction  for  many  years 
afterward  to  private  pupils,  many  of  whom  are  now  suc- 
cessful teachers  in  different  parts  of  the  Union. 


102  MR.  CAKTER  ON  EDUCATION  OF  TEACHERS. 

In  1830,  Mr.  Carter  assisted  in  the  establishment  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Instruction,  of  which  he  was  for 
many  years  an  officer  and  an  active  member.  At  its  first 
session  he  delivered  a  lecture  on  "the  development  of  the 
intellectual  faculties,"  in  which  he  treats  of  education  as  a 
science;  and  in  1831,  he  gave  another  lecture  on  "the  neces- 
sity and  most  practicable  means  of  raising  the  qualifica- 
tions of  teachers." 

In  1835,  and  for  several  years  afterward,  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Legislature,  and  in  that  position,  as  chairman  of 
the  Committee  of  Education,  drafted  several  able  reports 
and  bills,  to  promote  the  cause  of  educational  improvement. 
During  his  first  term,  he  secured  the  appropriation  of  three 
hundred  dollars  a  year  in  aid  of  the  objects  of  the  American 
Institute  of  Instruction.  In  the  same  session  he  submitted  an 
elaborate  report  in  favor  of  "an  Act  to  provide  for  the  bet- 
ter instruction  of  youth,  employed  in  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments,"— which  the  Hon.  Rufus  Choate  characterized 
as  "a  measure  of  large  wisdom  and  expanded  benevolence, 
which  makes  it  practicable  and  safe  for  Massachusetts  to 
grow  rich  by  manufacture  and  by  art."  In  1836,  as  chair- 
man of  the  same  committee,  he  reported  a  bill  for  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  and  ad- 
vocated the  establishment  of  a  seminary  for  the  profession- 
al education  of  teachers. 

In  1837,  Mr.  Carter  made  a  vigorous  effort  in  the  House 
to  secure  the  appropriation  of  one  half  of  the  United  States 
Surplus  Revenue,  for  the  education  of  Common  School 
teachers.  His  speech,  on  the  second  of  February,  for  this 
object,  is  an  able  exposition  of  the  claims  of  free  schools  for 
efficient  and  liberal  legislation,  and  of  the  necessity  of  an 
institution  devoted  exclusively  to  the  appropriate  education 
of  teachers  for  them.  His  amendment  was  lost;  but  he  had 
the  satisfaction,  at  a  later  period  of  the  session,  to  draft 
the  bill,  establishing  the  Board  of  Education,  which  was 
adopted.  Gov.  Everett  nominated  Mr.  Carter  the  first  mem- 
ber of  the  Board. 


MEMORIAL 


OF  THE 


AMERICAN  INSTITUTE  OF  INSTRUCTION  TO  THE  LEGISLATURE 
OF  MASSACHUSETTS  ON  NORMAL  SCHOOLS. 

(Submitted  January,  1837.) 


To  THE  HONORABLE  THE  LEGISLATURE 

OF  THE  COMMONWEALTH  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

The  Memorial  of  the  Directors  of  the  American  Institute  of  Instruc- 
tion, praying  that  provision  may  be  made  for  the  better  preparation 
of  the  teachers  of  the  schools  of  the  Commonwealth,  respectfully 
showeth : 

THAT  there  is,  throughout  the  Commonwealth,  a  great  want  of  well- 
qualified  teachers: 

That  this  is  felt  in  all  the  schools,  of  all  classes,  but  especially  in 
the  most  important  and  numerous  class,  the  district  schools: 

That  wherever,  in  any  town,  exertion  has  been  made  to  improve 
these  schools,  it  has  been  met  and  baffled  by  the  want  of  good  teach- 
ers; that  they  have  been  sought  for  in  vain;  the  highest  salaries 
have  been  offered,  to  no  purpose;  that  they  are  not  to  be  found  in 
sufficient  numbers  to  supply  the  demand:  — 

That  their  place  is  supplied  by  persons  exceedingly  incompetent,  in 
many  respects;  by  young  men,  in  the  course  of  their  studies,  teaching 
from  necessity,  and  often  with  a  strong  dislike  for  the  pursuit;  by 
mechanics  and  others  wanting  present  employment;  and  by  persons 
who,  having  failed  in  other  callings,  take  to  teaching  as  a  last  resort, 
with  no  qualifications  for  it,  and  no  desire  of  continuing  in  it  longer 
than  they  are  obliged  by  an  absolute  necessity:  — 

That  those  among  this  number  who  have  a  natural  fitness  for  the 
work,  now  gain  the  experience,  without  which  no  one,  whatever  his 
gifts,  can  become  a  good  teacher,  by  the  sacrifice,  winter  after  winter, 
of  the  time  and  advancement  of  the  children  of  the  schools  of  the 
Commonwealth : 

That  every  school  is  now  liable  to  have  a  winter's  session  wasted 
by  the  unskillful  attempts  of  an  instructor,  making  his  first  ex- 
periments in  teaching:  By  the  close  of  the  season,  he  may  have 
gained  some  insight  into  the  mystery,  may  have  hit  upon  some  toler- 
able method  of  discipline,  may  have  grown  somewhat  familiar  with 
the  books  used  and  with  the  character  of  the  children;  and,  if  he 
could  go  on  in  the  same  school  for  successive  years,  might  become  a 
profitable  teacher;  but  whatever  he  may  have  gained  himself,  from 
his  experiments,  he  will  have  failed  too  entirely  of  meeting  the  just 
expectations  of  the  district,  to  leave  him  any  hope  of  being  engaged 
for  a  second  term:  He  accordingly  looks  elsewhere  for  the  next 
season,  and  the  district  receives  another  master,  to  have  the  existing 
regulations  set  aside,  and  to  undergo  another  series  of  experiments: 
We  do  not  state  the  fact  too  strongly,  when  we  say  that  the  time, 
capacities,  and  opportunities  of  thousands  of  the  children  are  now 
sacrificed,  winter  after  winter,  to  the  preparation  of  teachers,  who, 
after  this  enormous  sacrifice,  are,  notwithstanding,  often  very  wretch- 
edly prepared: 


104  MEMORIAL    OF    NORMAL    SCHOOLS 1837. 

That  many  times,  no  preparation  is  even  aimed  at:  that  such  is  the 
known  demand  for  teachers  of  every  kind,  with  or  without  qualifica- 
tions, that  candidates  present  themselves  for  the  employment,  and 
committees,  in  despair  of  finding  better,  employ  them,  who  have 
no  degree  of  fitness  for  the  work:  that  committees  are  obliged  to 
employ,  to  take  charge  of  their  children,  men  to  whose  incompetency 
they  would  reluctantly  commit  their  farms  or  their  workshops: 

That  the  reaction  of  this  deplorable  incompetency  of  the  teachers, 
upon  the  minds  of  the  committees,  is  hardly  less  to  be  deplored, 
hardly  less  alarming,  as  it  threatens  to  continue  the  evil  and  render 
it  perpetual;  Finding  they  cannot  get  suitable  teachers  at  any  price 
they  naturally  apportion  the  salary  to  the  value  of  the  service  ren- 
dered, and  the  consequence  is,  that,  in  many  places,  the  wages  of  a 
teacher  are  below  those  given  in  the  humblest  of  the  mechanic  arts; 
and  instances  are  known,  of  persons  of  tolerable  qualifications  as 
teachers,  declining  to  quit,  for  a  season,  some  of  the  least  gainful  of 
the  trades,  on  the  ground  of  the  lowness  of  the  teachers'  pay. 

We  merely  state  these  facts,  without  enlarging  upon  them,  as  they 
have  already  too  great  and  melancholy  a  notoriety.  We  but  add  our 
voice  to  the  deep  tone  of  grief  and  complaint  which  sounds  from 
every  part  of  the  State. 

We  are  not  surprised  at  this  condition  of  the  teachers.  We  should 
be  surprised  if  it  were  much  otherwise. 

Most  of  the  winter  schools  are  taught  for  about  three  months  in 
the  year;  the  summer  not  far  beyond  four.  They  are,  therefore,  of 
necessity,  taught,  and  must  continue  to  be  taught,  by  persons  who, 
for  two-thirds  or  three-fourths  of  the  year,  have  other  pursuits,  in 
qualifying  themselves  for  which  they  have  spent  the  usual  period, 
and  which,  of  course,  they  look  upon  as  the  main  business  of  their 
lives.  They  cannot  be  expected  to  make  great  exertions  and  expensive 
preparation  for  the  work  of  teaching,  in  which  the  standard  is  so  low, 
and  for  which  they  are  so  poorly  paid. 

Whatever  desire  they  might  have,  it  would  be  almost  in  vain.  There 
are  now  no  places  suited  to  give  them  the  instruction  they  need. 

For  every  other  profession  requiring  a  knowledge  of  the  principles 
of  science  and  the  conclusions  of  experience,  there  are  special  schools 
and  colleges,  with  learned  and  able  professors,  and  ample  apparatus. 
For  the  preparation  of  the  teachers,  there  is  almost  none.  In  every 
other  art  ministering  to  the  wants  and  conveniences  of  men,  masters 
may  be  found  ready  to  impart  whatsoever  of  skill  they  have  to  the 
willing  apprentice;  and  the  usage  of  society  justly  requires  that  years 
should  be  spent  under  the  eye  of  an  adept,  to  gain  the  requisite 
ability.  An  apprentice  to  a  schoolmaster  is  known  only  in  tradition. 

We  respectfully  maintain  that  it  ought  not  so  to  be:  so  much  of 
the  intelligence  and  character,  the  welfare  and  immediate  and  future 
happiness  of  all  the  citizens,  now  and  hereafter,  depends  on  the 
condition  of  the  common  schools,  that  it  is  of  necessity  a  matter  of 
the  dearest  interest  to  all  of  the  present  generation;  that  the  common 
education  is  to  such  a  degree  the  palladium  of  our  liberties,  and  the 
good  condition  of  the  common  schools,  in  which  that  education  is 
chiefly  obtained,  so  vitally  important  to  the  stability  of  our  State,  to 
our  very  existence  as  a  free  State,  that  it  is  the  most  proper  subject 
for  legislation,  and  calls  loudly  for  legislative  provision  and  protection. 
The  common  schools  ought  to  be  raised  to  their  proper  place;  and 
this  can  only  be  done  by  the  better  education  of  the  teachers. 

We  maintain  that  provision  ought  to  be  made  by  the  State  for  the 
education  of  teachers;  because,  while  their  education  is  so  important 


MEMORIAL    OF    NORMAL    SCHOOLS — 1837.  105 

to  the  State,  their  condition  generally  is  such  as  to  put  a  suitable 
education  entirely  beyond  their  reach;  because,  by  no  other  means 
is  it  likely  that  a  system  shall  be  introduced,  which  shall  prevent  the 
immense  annual  loss  of  time  to  the  schools,  from  a  change  of  teachers; 
and,  because,  the  qualifications  of  a  first-rate  teacher  are  such  as 
cannot  be  gained  but  by  giving  a  considerable  time  wholly  to  the 
work  of  preparation. 

In  his  calling,  there  is  a  peculiar  difficulty  in  the  fact,  that  whereas, 
in  other  callings  and  professions,  duties  and  difficulties  come  on 
gradually,  and  one  by  one,  giving  ample  time,  in  the  intervals,  for 
special  preparation,  in  his,  they  all  come  at  once.  On  the  first  day 
on  which  he  enters  the  school,  his  difficulties  meet  him  with  a  single, 
unbroken,  serried  front,  as  numerously  as  they  ever  will;  and  they 
refuse  to  be  separated.  He  cannot  divide  and  overcome  them  singly, 
putting  off  the  more  formidable  to  wrestle  with  at  a  future  time;  he 
could  only  have  met  them  with  complete  success,  by  long  forecast, 
by  months  and  years  of  preparation. 

The  qualifications  requisite  in  a  good  teacher,  of  which  many  have 
so  low  and  inadequate  an  idea,  as  to  think  them  almost  the  instinctive 
attributes  of  every  man  and  every  woman,  we  maintain  to  be  ex- 
cellent qualities,  rarely  united  in  a  high  degree  in  the  same  individual, 
and  to  obtain  which  one  must  give,  and  may  well  give,  much  time  and 
study. 

We  begin  with  the  loicest.  He  must  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
whatever  he  undertakes  to  teach.  If  it  were  not  so  common,  how 
absurd  would  it  seem,  that  one  should  undertake  to  communicate  to 
another  fluency  and  grace  in  the  beautiful  accomplishment  of  reading, 
without  having  them  himself;  or  to  give  skill  in  the  processes  of 
arithmetic,  while  he  understood  it  so  dimly  himself  as  to  be  obliged 
to  follow  the  rules,  as  blindly  as  the  child  he  was  teaching!  And 
yet,  are  there  not  many  teachers  yearly  employed  by  committees, 
from  the  impossibility  of  finding  better,  who,  in  reading  and  arithme- 
tic, as  in  every  thing  else,  are  but  one  step  before,  if  they  do  not 
fall  behind,  the  foremost  of  their  own  pupils?  Is  it  not  so  in  geogra- 
phy, in  English  grammar,  in  every  thing,  in  short,  which  is  now 
required  to  be  taught? 

If  the  teacher  understood  thoroughly  what  is  required  in  the  usual 
prescribed  course,  it  would  be  something.  But  we  maintain  that  the 
teachers  of  the  public  schools  ought  to  be  able  to  do  much  more.  In 
every  school  occasions  are  daily  occurring,  on  which,  from  a  well- 
stored  mind,  could  be  imparted,  upon  the  most  interesting  and  im- 
portant subjects,  much  that  would  be  of  the  greatest  value  to  the 
learner,  at  the  impressible  period  of  his  pupilage.  Ought  not  these 
occasions  to  be  provided  for?  Besides,  there  are  always  at  least  a  few 
forward  pupils,  full  of  talent,  ready  to  make  advances  far  beyond  the 
common  course.  Such,  if  their  teacher  could  conduct  them,  would 
rejoice,  instead  of  circling  again  and  again  in  the  same  dull  round, 
to  go  onward,  in  other  and  higher  studies,  so  manifestly  valuable, 
that  the  usual  studies  of  a  school  seem  but  as  steps,  intended  to  lead 
up  to  them. 

In  the  second  place,  a  teacher  should  so  understand  the  ordering 
and  discipline  of  a  school,  as  to  be  able  at  once  to  introduce  system 
and  to  keep  it  constantly  in  force.  Much  precious  time,  as  already 
stated,  is  lost  in  making,  changing,  abrogating,  modeling  and  remodel- 
inging  rules  and  regulations.  And  not  only  is  the  time  utterly  lost, 
but  the  changes  are  a  source  of  perplexity  and  vexation  to  master  and 
pupil.  A  judicious  system  of  regulations  not  only  takes  up  no  time, 


106  MEMOBIAL    OF    NORMAL    SCHOOLS — 1837. 

but  saves  time  for  every  thing  else.  We  believe  there  are  few  persons 
to  whom  this  knowledge  of  system  comes  without  an  effort,  who  are 
born  with  such  an  aptitude  to  order  that  they  fall  into  it  naturally 
and  of  course. 

In  the  third  place,  a  teacher  should  know  how  to  teach.  This,  we 
believe,  is  the  rarest  and  best  of  his  qualifications.  Without  it,  great 
knowledge,  however  pleasant  to  the  possessor,  will  be  of  little  use 
to  his  pupils;  and  with  it,  a  small  fund  will  be  made  to  produce  great 
effects.  It  cannot,  with  propriety,  be  considered  a  single  faculty.  It 
is  rather  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  best  methods  of  bringing  the 
truths  of  the  several  subjects  that  are  to  be  taught,  to  the  com- 
prehension of  the  learner.  Not  often  does  the  same  method  apply 
to  several  studies.  It  must  vary  with  the  nature  of  the  truths  to  be 
communicated,  and  with  the  age,  capacity,  and  advancement  of  the 
pupil.  To  possess  it  fully,  one  must  have  ready  command  of  ele- 
mentary principles,  a  habit  of  seeing  them  in  various  points  of  view, 
and  of  promptly  seizing  the  one  best  suited  to  the  learner;  a  power 
of  awakening  his  curiosity,  and  of  adapting  the  lessons  to  the  mind, 
so  as  to  bring  out  its  faculties  naturally  and  without  violence.  It 
therefore  supposes  an  acquaintance  with  the  minds  of  children,  the 
order  in  which  their  faculties  expand,  and  by  what  discipline  they  may 
be  nurtured,  and  their  inequalities  repaired. 

This  knowledge  of  the  human  mind  and  character  may  be  stated  as 
a  fourth  qualification  of  a  teacher.  Without  it,  he  will  be  always 
groping  his  way  darkly.  He  will  disgust  the  forward  and  quick-witted, 
by  making  them  linger  along  with  the  slow;  and  dishearten  the  slow, 
by  expecting  them  to  keep  pace  with  the  swift.  He  will  fail  of  the 
peculiar  end  of  right  education,  the  quickening  to  life  and  action  those 
faculties  which,  without  his  fostering  care,  would  have  been  left  to  lie 
dormant. 

Whoever  considers  to  how  great  a  degree  the  successful  action  of 
the  mind  depends  on  the  state  of  the  feelings  and  affections,  will  be 
ready  to  admit  that  an  instructor  should  know  so  much  of  the  con- 
nection and  subordination  of  the  parts  of  the  human  character,  as  to 
be  able  to  enlist  them  all  in  the  same  cause,  to  gain  the  heart  to  the 
side  of  advancement,  and  to  make  the  affections  the  ministers  of  truth 
and  wisdom. 

We  have  spoken  very  briefly  of  some  of  the  qualifications  essential  to 
a  good  teacher.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  there  are  still  higher 
qualifications,  which  ought  to  belong  to  the  persons  who  are  to  have 
such  an  influence  upon  the  character  and  well-being  of  the  future 
citizens  of  the  Commonwealth;  who,  besides  parents,  can  do  more 
than  all  others  toward  training  the  young  to  a  clear  perception  of 
right  and  wrong,  to  the  love  of  truth,  to  reverence  for  the  laws  of 
man  and  of  God,  to  the  performance  of  all  the  duties  of  good  citizens 
and  good  men.  The  teacher  ought  to  be  a  person  of  elevated  charac- 
ter, able  to  win  by  his  manners  and  instruct  by  his  example,  without 
as  well  as  within  the  school. 

Now  it  is  known  to  your  memoralists  that  a  very  large  number  of 
those,  of  both  sexes,  who  now  teach  the  summer  and  the  winter  schools, 
are,  to  a  mournful  degree,  wanting  in  all  these  qualifications.  Far 
from  being  able  to  avail  themselves  of  opportunities  of  communicating 
knowledge  on  various  subjects,  they  are  grossly  ignorant  of  what  they 
are  called  on  to  teach.  They  are  often  without  experience  in  man- 
aging a  school;  they  have  no  skill  in  communicating.  Instead  of 
being  able  to  stimulate  and  guide  to  all  that  is  noble  and  excellent, 
they  are,  not  seldom,  persons  of  such  doubtful  respectability  and  re- 


MEMORIAL    OF    NORMAL    SCHOOLS — 1837.  107 

finement  of  character,  that  no  one  would  think,  for  a  moment,  of 
holding  them  up  as  models  to  their  pupils.  In  short,  they  know  not 
what  to  teach,  nor  how  to  teach,  nor  in  what  spirit  to  teach,  nor  what 
is  the  nature  of  those  they  undertake  to  lead,  nor  what  they  are  them- 
selves, who  stand  forward  to  lead  them. 

Your  memorialists  believe  that  these  are  evils  of  portentous  moment 
to  the  future  welfare  of  the  people  of  this  Commonwealth,  and  that, 
while  they  bear  heavily  on  all,  they  bear  especially  and  with  dis- 
proportioned  weight  upon  the  poorer  districts  in  the  scattered  popu- 
lation of  the  country  towns.  The  wealthy  are  less  directly  affected 
by  them,  as  they  can  send  their  children  from  home  to  the  better 
schools  in  other  places.  The  large  towns  are  not  affected  in  the  same 
degree,  as  their  density  of  population  enables  them  to  employ  teachers 
through  the  year,  at  salaries  which  command  somewhat  higher  quali- 
fications. 

We  believe  that  you  have  it  in  your  power  to  adopt  such  measures 
as  shall  forthwith  diminish  these  evils,  and  at  last  remove  them; 
and  this  can  only  be  done  by  providing  for  the  better  preparation  of 
teachers. 

We  therefore  pray  you  to  consider  the  expediency  of  instituting,  for 
the  special  instruction  of  teachers,  one  or  more  seminaries,  either 
standing  independently,  or  in  connection  with  institutions  already  ex- 
isting; as  you  shall,  in  your  wisdom,  think  best. 

We  also  beg  leave  to  state  what  we  conceive  to  be  essential  to  such 
a  seminary. 

1.  There  should  be  a  professor  of  professors,  of  piety,  of  irreproach- 
able character  and  good  education,  and  of  tried  ability  and  skill  in 
teaching. 

2.  A  library,  not  necessarily  large,  but  well  chosen,  of  books  on  sub- 
jects to  be  taught,  and  on  the  art  of  teaching. 

3.  School-rooms,  well  situated,  and  arranged,  heated,  ventilated,  and 
furnished,  in  the  manner  best  approved  by  experienced  teachers. 

4.  A  select  apparatus  of  globes,  maps,  and  other  instruments  most 
useful  for  illustration. 

5.  A  situation  such  that  a  school  may  be  connected  with  the  sem- 
inary,   accessible    by   a    sufficient   number   of    children,    to    give    the 
variety  of  an  ordinary  district  school. 

We  beg  leave  also  further  to  state  the  manner  in  which  we  conceive 
that  such  a  seminary  would  be  immediately  useful  to  the  schools  with- 
in the  sphere  of  its  influence. 

We  do  not  believe  that  the  majority  of  the  district  schools  in  the 
Commonwealth  will  soon,  if  ever,  be  taught  by  permanent  teachers. 
We  believe  that  they  will  continue  to  be  taught,  as  they  are  now, 
by  persons  who,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  will  be  engaged  in 
some  other  pursuit:  that,  as  in  the  early  history  of  Rome,  the  gen- 
erous husbandman  left  his  plough  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  state, 
so,  in  Massachusetts,  the  free  and  intelligent  citizen  will,  for  a  time, 
quit  his  business,  his  work-shop,  or  his  farm,  to  fight,  for  the  sake 
of  his  children  and  the  state,  a  more  vital  battle  against  immorality 
and  ignorance.  And  we  rejoice  to  believe  that  it  will  be  so.  So  shall 
the  hearts  of  the  fathers  be  in  the  schools  of  their  children:  so  shall 
the  teachers  have  that  knowledge  of  the  world,  that  acquaintance 
with  men  and  things,  so  often  wanting  in  the  mere  schoolmaster,  and 
yet  not  among  the  least  essential  of  his  qualifications. 


108  MEMORIAL    OF    NORMAL    SCHOOLS — 1837. 

But  we  wish  to  see  these  citizens  enjoy  the  means  of  obtaining  the 
knowledge  and  practical  skill  in  the  art  of  teaching,  which  shall  enable 
them  to  perform  the  duties  of  their  additional  office  worthily. 

Establish  a  seminary  wherever  you  please,  and  it  will  be  immedi- 
ately resorted  to.  We  trust  too  confidently  in  that  desire  of  ex- 
cellence which  seems  to  be  an  element  in  our  New  England  character, 
to  doubt  that  any  young  man,  who,  looking  forward,  sees  that  he  shall 
have  occasion  to  teach  a  school  every  winter  for  ten  years,  will  avail 
himself  of  any  means  within  his  reach,  of  preparation  for  the  work. 
Give  him  the  opportunity,  and  he  cannot  fail  to  be  essentially  benefitted 
by  his  attendance  at  the  seminary,  if  it  be  but  for  a  single  month. 

In  the  first  place,  he  will  see  there  an  example  of  right  ordering 
and  management  of  a  school;  the  spirit  of  which  he  may  immediately 
imbibe,  and  can  never  after  be  at  a  loss,  as  to  a  model  of  management, 
or  in  doubt  as  to  its  importance. 

In  the  second  place,  by  listening  to  the  teaching  of  another,  he  will 
be  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  preparation,  as  he  will  see  that 
success  depends  on  thorough  knowledge  and  a  direct  action  of  the 
teacher's  own  mind.  This  alone  would  be  a  great  point,  as  many  a 
schoolmaster  hears  reading  and  spelling,  and  looks  over  writing  and 
arithmetic,  without  ever  attempting  to  give  any  instruction  or  ex- 
planation, or  even  thinking  them  necessary. 

In  the  third  place,  he  will  see  put  in  practice  metohds  of  teaching; 
and  though  he  may,  on  reflection,  conclude  that  none  of  them  are  ex- 
actly suited  to  his  own  mind,  he  will  see  the  value  of  method,  and  will 
never  after  proceed  as  he  would  have  done,  if  he  had  never  seen  me- 
thodical teaching  at  all. 

In  the  next  place,  he  will  have  new  light  thrown  upon  the  whole 
work  of  education,  by  being  made  to  perceive  that  its  great  end  is  not 
mechanically  to  communicate  ability  in  certain  operations,  but  to  draw 
forth  and  exercise  the  whole  powers  of  the  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  being. 

He  will,  moreover,  hardly  fail  to  observe  the  importance  of  the 
manners  of  an  instructor,  and  how  far  it  depends  on  himself  to  give 
a  tone  of  cheerfulness  and  alacrity  to  his  school. 

In  the  last  place,  if  the  right  spirit  prevail  at  the  seminary,  he  will 
be  prepared  to  enter  upon  his  office  with  an  exalted  sense  of  its 
importance  and  responsibility — not  as  a  poor  drudge,  performing  a 
loathsome  office  for  a  miserable  stipend,  but  as  a  delegate  of  the 
authority  of  parents  and  the  State,  to  form  men  to  the  high  duties  of 
citizens  and  the  infinite  destinies  of  immortality,  answerable  to  them, 
their  country,  and  their  God  for  the  righteous  discharge  of  his  duties. 

Now  we  believe  that  this  single  month's  preparation  would  be  of 
immense  advantage  to  a  young  instructor. 

Let  him  now  enter  the  district  school.  He  has  a  definite  idea  of 
what  arrangements  he  is  to  make,  what  course  he  is  to  pursue,  what 
he  is  to  take  hold  of  first.  He  knows  that  he  is  himself  to  teach,  he 
knows  what  to  teach,  and,  in  some  measure,  how  he  is  to  set  about  it. 
He  feels  how  much  he  has  to  do  to  prepare  himself,  and  how  much 
depends  on  his  self-preparation.  He  has  some  conception  of  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  his  office.  At  the  end  of  a  single  season, 
he  will,  we  venture  to  say,  be  a  better  teacher  than  he  could  have 
been  after  half  a  dozen,  had  he  not  availed  himself  of  the  experience  of 
others.  He  will  hardly  fail  to  seek  further  occasions  to  draw  more 
largely  at  the  same  fountain. 


MEMORIAL   OF    NORMAL    SCHOOLS — 1837.  109 

Let  us  not  be  understood  as  offering  this  statement  of  probable  re- 
sults as  mere  conjecture.  They  have  been  confirmed  by  all  the  ex- 
perience, to  the  point,  of  a  single  institution  in  this  State,  and  of 
many  in  a  foreign  country.  What  is  thus,  from  experience  and  the 
reason  of  things,  shown  to  be  true  in  regard  to  a  short  preparation, 
will  be  still  more  strikingly  so  of  a  longer  one. 

To  him,  who  shall  make  teaching  the  occupation  of  his  life,  the 
advantages  of  a  Teachers'  Seminary  cannot  easily  be  estimated.  They 
can  be  faintly  imagined  by  him  only,  who,  lawyer,  mechanic,  or  physi- 
cian, can  figure  to  himself  what  would  have  been  his  feelings,  had 
he,  on  the  first  day  of  his  apprenticeship,  been  called  to  perform,  at 
once,  the  duties  of  his  future  profession,  and,  after  being  left  to  suffer 
for  a  time  the  agony  of  despair  at  the  impossibility,  had  been  told  that 
two,  three,  seven  years  should  be  allowed  him  to  prepare  himself, 
with  all  the  helps  and  appliances  which  are  now  so  bountifully  furn- 
ished to  him, — which  are  furnished  to  every  one  except  the  teacher. 

We  have  no  doubt  that  teachers,  prepared  at  such  a  seminary, 
would  be  in  such  request  as  to  command,  at  once,  higher  pay  than 
is  now  given,  since  it  would  unquestionably  be  found  good  economy 
to  employ  them. 

It  raises  no  objection,  in  the  minds  of  your  memorialists,  to  the  plan 
of  a  seminary  at  the  State's  expense,  that  many  of  the  instructors 
there  prepared  would  teach  for  only  a  portion  of  the  year.  It  is  on 
that  very  ground  that  they  ought  to  be  aided.  For  their  daily  callings 
they  will  take  care  to  qualify  themselves;  they  cannot,  unaided,  be 
expected  to  do  the  same  in  regard  to  the  office  of  teacher,  because  it  is 
a  casual  and  temporary  one;  it  is  one  which  they  will  exercise,  in  the 
intervals  of  their  stated  business,  for  the  good  of  their  fellow-citizens. 
They  ought,  for  that  especial  reason,  to  be  assisted  in  preparing  for  it. 
The  gain  will  be  theirs,  it  is  true;  but  it  will  be  still  more  the  gain  of 
the  community.  It  will  be  theirs,  inasmuch  as  they  will  be  able  to 
command  better  salaries;  but  it  will  be  only  in  consideration  of  the 
more  valuable  services  they  will  render.  The  gain  will  be  shared  by 
other  schools  than  those  they  teach.  Seeing  what  can  be  done  by  good 
teachers,  districts  and  committees  will  no  longer  rest  satisfied  with 
poor,  and  the  standard  will  every  where  rise. 

If  it  were  only  as  enabling  teachers  throughout  the  State  to  teach, 
as  they  should,  the  branches  now  required  to  be  taught,  the  seminaries 
would  be  worth  more  than  their  establishment  can  cost.  But  they 
would  do  much  more.  They  would  render  the  instruction  given  more 
worthy,  in  kind  and  degree,  the  enlightened  citizens  of  a  free  State. 

Without  going  too  minutely  into  this  part  of  the  subject,  we  cannot 
fully  show  how  the  course  of  instruction  might,  in  our  judgment,  be 
enlarged.  We  may  be  allowed  to  indicate  a  few  particulars. 

The  study  of  geometry,  that  benignant  nurse  of  inventive  genius,  is 
at  present  pursued  partially,  in  a  few  of  the  town  schools.  We  may 
safely  assert  that,  under  efficient  teachers,  the  time  now  given  to 
arithmetic  would  be  amply  sufficient,  not  only  for  that,  but  for  geom- 
etry, and  its  most  important  applications  in  surveying  and  other  useful 
arts.  To  a  population  so  full  of  mechanical  talent  as  ours,  this  is  a 
lamentable  omission. 

We  may  also  point  to  the  case  of  drawing  in  right  lines.  It  might, 
with  a  saving  of  time,  be  ingrafted  on  writing,  if  the  instructors  were 
qualified  to  teach  it.  This  beautiful  art,  so  valuable  as  a  guide  to  the 
hand  and  eye  of  every  one,  especially  of  every  handcraftsman,  and 
deemed  almost  an  essential  in  every  school  in  France,  and  other  coun- 


110  MEMORIAL    OF    NORMAL    SCHOOLS 1837. 

tries  of  Europe,  is,  so  far  as  we  can  learn  from  the  Secretary's  excel- 
lent report,  entirely  neglected  in  every  public  school  in  Massachusetts. 

We  might  make  similar  observations  in  regard  to  book-keeping,  now 
beginning  to  be  introduced;  natural  philosophy,  physiology,  natural 
history,  and  other  studies,  which  might  come  in,  not  to  the  exclusion, 
but  to  the  manifest  improvement,  of  the  studies  already  pursued. 

When  we  consider  the  many  weeks  in  our  long  northern  winters, 
during  which,  all  through  our  borders,  the  arts  of  the  husbandman  and 
builder  seem,  like  the  processes  of  the  vegetable  world,  to  hold  holiday, 
and  the  sound  of  many  a  trowel  and  many  an  ax  and  hammer  ceases 
to  be  heard,  and  the  hours,  without,  any  interruption  of  the  busy  labors 
of  the  year,  might  be  given  to  learning  by  the  youth  of  both  sexes, 
almost  up  to  the  age  of  maturity,  these  omissions,  the  unemployed  in- 
tellect, the  golden  days  of  early  manhood,  lost  acquisitions  that 
might  be  made  and  are  not,  assume  a  vastness  of  importance  which 
may  well  alarm  us. 

It  may  possibly  be  apprehended,  that  should  superior  teachers  be 
prepared  in  the  seminaries  of  Massachusetts,  they  would  be  invited  to 
other  States  by  higher  salaries,  and  the  advantage  of  their  education 
be  thus  lost  to  the  State.  We  know  not  that  it  ought  to  be  considered 
an  undesirable  thing  that  natives  of  Massachusetts,  who  will  certainly 
go,  from  time  to  time,  to  regions  more  favored  by  nature,  should  go 
with  such  characters  and  endowments  as  to  render  their  chosen  homes 
more  worthy  to  be  the  residence  of  intelligent  men.  But  we  apprehend 
it  to  be  an  event  much  more  likely  to  happen,  that  the  successful  ex- 
ample of  Massachusetts  should  be  imitated  by  her  sister  republics, 
emulous,  as  New  York  already  shows  herself,  of  surpassing  us  in  what 
has  hitherto  been  the  chief  glory  of  New  England,  a  jealous  care  of 
the  public  schools. 

For  the  elevation  of  the  public  schools  to  the  high  rank  which  they 
ought  to  hold  in  a  community,  whose  most  precious  patrimony  is  their 
liberty,  and  the  intelligence,  knowledge  and  virtue  on  which  alone  it 
can  rest,  we  urge  our  prayer.  We  speak  boldly,  for  we  seek  no  private 
end.  We  speak  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  those  who  cannot  appear 
before  you  to  urge  their  own  suit,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  pres- 
ent race,  and  of  all,  of  every  race  and  class  of  coming  generations  in 
all  future  times. 

For  the  directors  of  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction. 

George  B.  Emerson;  S.  R.  Hall;  W.  J.  Adams;  D.  Kimball;  E.  A. 
Andrews;  B.  Greenleaf;  N.  Cleveland,  Committee. 

The  above  Memorial  was  prepared  in  pursuance  of  the 
following  votes  of  the  Institute. 

At  the  Annual  Meeting,  in  Boston,  in  August,  1836,  the 
subject  of  the  Professional  Education  of  Teachers  was  ably 
discussed,  and  the  following  resolutions,  offered  by  Mr. 
Frederic  Emerson,  of  Boston,  were  adopted : — 

"Resolved,  "That  the  business  of  teaching  should  be  performed  by 
those  who  have  studied  the  subject  of  instruction  as  a  profession. 
Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  there  ought  to  be  at  least  one  seminary  in  each  state, 
devoted  exclusively  to  the  education  of  teachers;  and  that  this  sem- 
inary should  be  authorized  to  confer  appropriate  degrees." 


MEMORIAL    OF    NORMAL    SCHOOLS — 1837.  Ill 

At  a  later  period  of  the  session,  Mr.  Morton,  of  Plymouth, 
proposed  another  resolution  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
some  action : — 

Resolved,  "That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  obtain  funds  by  solicit- 
ing our  State  Legislature  tbe  next  session,  and  by  inviting  individual 
donations  for  the  purchase  of  land  and  the  erection  of  the  necessary 
buildings,  and  to  put  in  operation  a  seminary  to  qualify  teachers  of 
youth  for  the  most  important  occupation  of  mankind  on  the  earth." 

After  a  long  and  ardent  debate,  the  following  was  offered 
as  an  amendment,  by  Mr.  F.  Emerson,  and  was  adopted : — 

Ordered,  "That  the  Board  of  Directors  be  instructed  to  memorialize 
the  Legislature  on  the  subject  of  establishing  a  seminary  for  the  ''ed- 
ucation of  teachers." 

A  memorial  was  accordingly  prepared  by  Mr.  George  B. 
Emerson,  in  behalf  of  a  committee  of  the  Directors,  and 
submitted  to  the  Legislature  in  January,  1837,  by  whose  or- 
der it  was  printed  and  circulated  with  the  other  documents 
of  the  session.  This  paper  is  the  ablest  argument  in  behalf 
of  a  Normal  School  which  had  appeared  up  to  that  date ;  and 
will  not  suffer  in  comparison  with  any  which  the  discussion 
of  the  subject  has  at  any  time  called  forth.  It  however  did 
not  lead  to  any  legislative  action  during  that  session,  but 
undoubtedly  prepared  the  way.  In  the  mean  time,  the  Leg- 
islature, on  the  recommendation  of  the  Governor,  and  of  the 
Committee  of  Education,  of  which  James  G.  Carter  was 
chairman,  and  of  a  Memorial  by  the  Directors  of  the  Insti- 
tute in  1836,  which  was  drawn  up  by  Mr.  George  B.  Emer- 
son, passed  an  Act  instituting  the  Board  of  Education. 

By  the  action  of  this  Board,  and  the  labors  of  its  Secre- 
tary, and  the  well-timed  liberality  of  Edmund  Dwight,  in 
1838,  the  idea  of  a  Normal  School,  so  long  advocated  by  the 
friends  of  school  improvement,  became  a  recognized  fact  in 
the  legislation  of  Massachusetts.  Previous  to  any  action  on 
the  part  of  the  Legislature,  an  experiment  had  been  com- 
menced as  a  private  enterprise  at  Andover,  in  connection 
with  one  of  the  best  conducted  academies  of  the  state. 


TEACHERS'  SEMINARY 

AT 

ANDOVER,    MASSACHUSETTS. 


"The  Teachers'  Seminary  at  Andover  was  established  in  September, 
1830,  as  a  department  of  Phillips'  Academy,  one  of  the  oldest  literary 
institutions  in  New  England.  Its  object,  as  set  forth  in  a  circular  is- 
sued by  the  Trustees,  was  'to  afford  the  means  of  a  thorough  scientific 
and  practical  education,  preparatory  to  the  profession  of  teaching,  and 
to  the  various  departments  of  business.' 

Though  nominally  a  department  of  Phillips'  Academy,  it  was  from 
the  first  a  separate  institution,  having  its  organization  entirely  distinct 
from  that  of  the  classical  department. 

The  Trustees  erected  for  the  seminary  a  commodious  and  substantial 
school-edifice,  and  expended  between  two  and  three  thousand  dollars 
in  the  purchase  of  apparatus  for  illustrating  the  different  branches  of 
science.  Liberal  appropriations  were  made  from  time  to  time  for  the 
purpose  of  diminishing  the  expenses  of  the  students.  The  institution 
was  provided  with  a  convenient  boarding-house,  and  rooms  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  nearly  a  hundred  pupils. 

The  seminary  embraced  a  teachers'  department,  a  general  depart- 
ment, and  a  preparatory  department  or  model  school.  The  course  of 
instruction  in  the  teachers'  department  occupied  a  period  of  three 
years,  and  embraced  most  of  the  English  branches  pursued  in  our 
colleges,  together  with  lectures  and  discussions  on  the  theory  and 
practice  of  teaching,  and  other  kindred  exercises.  The  course  of  in- 
struction in  the  general  department  was  shorter  and  more  irregular. 
The  members  of  this  department  were  allowed  to  join  any  of  the 
classes  in  the  teachers'  department,  which  they  were  prepared  to 
enter. 

In  addition  to  the  ordinary  exercises  of  the  general  department,  the 
study  of  civil  engineering  was  introduced  during  the  early  history  of 
the  institution,  and  successfully  prosecuted  for  several  years,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Rev.  F.  A.  Barton.  At  a  later  period,  special  atten- 
tion was  given  to  the  study  of  scientific  and  practical  agriculture,  un- 
der the  instruction  of  the  Rev.  Alonzo  Gray. 

The  preparatory  department  was  an  English  school  for  boys,  usually 
taugh  by  a  separate  instructor,  under  the  general  superintendence  of 
the  Principal.  Members  of  the  teachers'  classes  were  sometimes  em- 
ployed to  conduct  recitations  in  the  preparatory  department,  but  this 
department  could  not,  at  any  time,  be  regarded  as  a  school  for  practice. 

The  first  Principal  of  the  seminary  was  the  Rev.  S.  R.  Hall,  who 
continued  in  office  nearly  seven  years.  In  July,  1837,  he  was  succeeded 
by  the  Rev.  Lyman  Coleman,  who  remained  at  the  head  of  the  institu- 
tion till  Nov.  1842,  when  the  original  object  of  the  Trustees  was  aban- 
donefl,  or  the  Teachers'  Seminary  was  merged  in  Phillips'  Academy. 

The  number  of  students  in  the  teachers'  classes  was  somewhat 
larger  during  the  first  six  years  than  during  the  last  six.  The  average 
number  for  the  whole  period  was  about  fifty.  The  whole  number  of 
students  that  completed  the  prescribed  course  of  study,  during  the 

H 


114  TEACHERS'  SEMINARY  AT  ANDOVER,  MASSACHUSETTS. 

existence  of  the  seminary,  was  a  little  less  than  one  hundred. 

The  immediate  cause  for  uniting  the  Teachers'  Seminary  with  the 
classical  department  of  Phillips'  Academy,  in  1842,  was  the  want  of 
funds  to  sustain  it  as  a  separate  institution.  The  limited  number  of 
students  in  the  teachers'  classes  resulted  in  part  from  the  same  cause. 
In  the  classical  department,  the  tuition  of  indigent  students  was  remit- 
ted; but  no  such  provision  was  made  for  the  members  of  the  teachers' 
classes. 

The  name  of  Samuel  Farrar,  Esq.,  of  Andover,  is  identified  with  the 
history  of  this  institution.  If  his  generous  and  untiring  efforts  in  its 
behalf  had  been  seconded  by  those  who  had  the  means  of  giving  it  a 
liberal  endowment,  its  usefulness  would  not  have  been  brought  to  so 
abrupt  a  termination." 


REMARKS 

OF 

DR.  WILLIAM  E.  CHANNING  ON  EDUCATION  AND   TEACHERS. 


In  1833,  Dr.  Charming  brought  the  aid  of  his  personal  in- 
fluence and  powerful  pen,  to  the  service  of  the  teacher.  In 
an  article  in  the  Christian  Examiner,  for  November,  1833, 
written  for  the  express  purpose  of  commending  the  Annals 
of  Education,  and  the  great  subject  to  which  it  was  devoted, 
under  the  editorial  charge  of  William  C.  Woodbridge,  to  the 
attention  of  the  best  class  of  minds  in  the  community,  the 
following  views  are  presented  as  to  the  importance  of  in- 
stitutions for  the  education  of  teachers,  and  the  true  nature 
and  dignity  of  the  office : 

"We  are  not  aware  that  in  this  country  a  single  school  for  teachers 
is  supported  at  the  public  expense.  How  much  would  be  gained,  if 
every  state  should  send  one  of  its  most  distinguished  citizens  to  ex- 
amine the  modes  of  teaching  at  home  and  in  Europe,  and  should  then 
place  him  at  the  head  of  a  seminary  for  the  formation  of  teachers." 
****** 

"There  is  no  office  higher  than  that  of  a  teacher  of  youth;  for  there 
is  nothing  on  earth  so  precious  as  the  mind,  soul,  character  of  the 
child.  No  office  should  be  regarded  with  greater  respect.  The  first 
minds  in  the  community  should  be  encouraged  to  assume  it.  Parents 
should  do  all  but  impoverish  themselves,  to  induce  such  to  become  the 
guardians  and  guides  of  their  children.  To  this  good,  all  their  show 
and  luxury  should  be  sacrificed.  Here  they  should  be  lavish,  whilst 
they  straiten  themselves  in  every  thing  else.  They  should  wear  the 
cheapest  clothes,  live  on  the  plainest  food,  if  they  can  in  no  other  way 
secure  to  their  families  the  best  instruction.  They  should  have  no 
anxiety  to  accumulate  property  for  their  children,  provided  they  can 
place  them  under  influences  which  will  awaken  their  faculties,  inspire 
them  with  pure  and  high  principles,  and  fit  them  to  bear  a  manly, 
useful,  and  honorable  part  in  the  world.  No  language  can  express  the 
cruelty  or  folly  of  that  economy,  which,  to  leave  a  fortune  to  a  child, 
starves  his  intellect,  impoverishes  his  heart." 


"We  know  not  how  society  can  be  aided  more  than  by  the  formation 
of  a  body  of  wise  and  efficient  educators.  We  know  not  any  class 
which  would  contribute  so  much  to  the  stability  of  the  state,  and  to 
domestic  happiness.  Much  as  we  respect  the  ministry  of  the  gospel, 
we  believe  it  must  yield  in  importance  to  the  office  of  training  the 
young.  In  truth,  the  ministry  now  accomplishes  little,  for  want  of  that 
early  intellectual  and  moral  discipline,  by  which  alone  a  community 
can  be  prepared  to  distinguish  truth  from  falsehood,  to  comprehend 
the  instructions  of  the  pulpivt,  to  receive  higher  and  broader  views  of 
duty,  and  to  apply  general  principles  to  the  diversified  details  of  life. 
A  body  of  cultivated  men,  devoted,  with  their  whole  hearts,  to  the 
improvement  of  education,  and  to  the  most  effectual  training  of  the 
young,  would  work  a  fundamental  revolution  in  society.  They  would 
leaven  the  community  with  just  principles." 


116  DR.    CHANNING    ON    EDUCATION    AND    TEACHERS. 

"We  maintain  that  higher  ability  is  required  for  the  office  of  an 
educator  of  the  young,  than  for  that  of  a  statesman.  The  highest  abil- 
ity is  that  which  penetrates  farthest  into  human  nature,  comprehends 
the  mind  in  all  its  capacities,  traces  out  the  laws  of  thought  and  moral 
action,  understands  the  perfection  of  human  nature,  and  how  it  may 
be  approached,  understands  the  springs,  motives,  applications,  by 
which  the  child  is  to  be  roused  to  the  most  vigorous  and  harmonious 
action  of  all  its  faculties,  understands  its  perils,  and  knows  how  to 
blend  and  modify  the  influences  which  outward  circumstances  exert 
on  the  youthful  mind.  The  speculations  of  statesmen  are  shallow, 
compared  with  these.  It  is  the  chief  function  of  the  statesman  to 
watch  over  the  outward  interests  of  a  people;  that  of  the  educator  to 
quicken  its  soul.  The  statesman  must  study  and  manage  the  passions 
and  prejudices  of  the  community;  the  educator  must  study  the  essen- 
tial, the  deepest,  the  loftiest  principles  of  human  nature.  The  states- 
man works  with  coarse  instruments  for  coarse  ends;  the  educator  is 
to  work  by  the  most  refined  influences  on  that  delicate,  ethereal  es- 
sence— the  immortal  soul." 


"One  great  cause  of  the  low  estimation  in  which  the  teacher  is  now 
held,  may  be  found  in  narrow  views  of  education.  The  multitude  think, 
that  to  educate  a  child,  is  to  crowd  into  its  mind  a  given  amount  of 
knowledge — to  teach  the  mechanism  of  reading  and  writing — to  load 
the  memory  with  words — to  prepare  a  boy  for  the  routine  of  a  trade. 
No  wonder,  then,  that  they  think  almost  every  body  fit  to  teach.  The 
true  end  of  education,  is  to  unfold  and  direct  aright  our  whole  nature. 
Its  office  is  to  call  forth  power  of  every  kind — power  of  thought,  af- 
fection, will,  and  outward  action;  power  to  observe,  to  reason,  to  judge, 
to  contrive;  power  to  adopt  good  ends  firmly,  and  to  pursue  them  effic- 
iently; power  to  govern  ourselves,  and  to  influence  others;  power  to  gain 
and  to  spread  happiness.  Reading  is  but  an  instrument;  education  is  to 
teach  its  best  use.  The  intellect  was  created,  not  to  receive  passively 
a  few  words,  dates,  facts,  but  to  be  active  for  the  acquisition  of  truth. 
Accordingly,  education  should  labor  to  inspire  a  profound  love  of  truth, 
and  to  teach  the  processes  of  investigation.  A  sound  logic,  by  which 
we  mean  the  science  or  art  which  instructs  us  in  the  laws  of  reasoning 
and  evidence,  in  the  true  methods  of  inquiry,  and  in  the  sources  of 
false  judgments,  is  an  essential  part  of  a  good  education.  And  yet,  how 
little  is  done  to  teach  the  right  use  of  the  intellect,  in  the  common 
modes  of  training  either  rich  or  poor.  As  a  general  rule,  the  young  are 
to  be  made,  as  far  as  possible,  their  own  teachers — the  discoverers  of 
truth — the  interpreters  of  nature — the  framers  of  science.  They  are 
to  be  helped  to  help  themselves.  They  should  be  taught  to  observe  and 
study  the  world  in  which  they  live,  to  trace  the  connections  of  events, 
to  rise  from  particular  facts  to  general  principles,  and  then  to  apply 
these  in  explaining  new  phenomena.  Such  is  a  rapid  outline  of  the 
intellectual  education,  which,  as  far  as  possible,  should  be  given  to  all 
human  beings;  and  with  this,  moral  education  should  go  hand  in  hand. 
In  proportion  as  the  child  gains  knowledge,  he  should  be  taught  how 
to  use  it  well — how  to  turn  it  to  the  good  of  mankind.  He  should  study 
the  world  as  God's  world,  and  as  the  sphere  in  which  he  is  to  form 
interesting  connections  with  his  fellow-creatures.  A  spirit  of  humanity 
should  be  breathed  into  him  from  all  his  studies.  In  teaching  geog- 
raphy, the  physical  and  moral  condition,  the  wants,  advantages,  and 
striking  peculiarities  of  different  nations,  and  the  relations  of  climate, 
seas,  rivers,  mountains,  to  their  characters  and  pursuits,  should  be 
pointed  out,  so  as  to  awaken  an  interest  in  man  wherever  he  dwells. 
History  should  be  constantly  used  to  exercise  the  moral  judgment  of 


DR.    CHANGING    ON    EDUCATION    AND    TEACHERS.  117 

the  young,  to  call  forth  sympathy  with  the  fortunes  of  the  human  race, 
and  to  expose  to  indignation  and  abhorrence  that  selfish  ambition,  that 
passion  for  dominion,  which  has  so  long  deluged  the  earth  with  blood 
and  woe.  And  not  only  should  the  excitement  of  just  moral  feeling  be 
proposed  in  every  study.  The  science  of  morals  should  form  an  im- 
portant part  of  every  child's  instruction.  One  branch  of  ethics  should 
be  particularly  insisted  on  by  the  government.  Every  school,  estab- 
lished by  law,  should  be  specially  bound  to  teach  the  duties  of  the 
citizen  to  the  state,  to  unfold  the  principles  of  free  institutions,  and  to 
train  the  young  to  an  enlightened  patriotism.  From  these  brief  and 
imperfect  views  of  the  nature  and  ends  of  a  wise  education,  we  learn 
the  dignity  of  the  profession  to  which  it  is  entrusted,  and  the  import- 
ance of  securing  to  it  the  best  minds  of  the  community." 

"We  have  said  that  it  is  the  office  of  the  teacher  to  call  into  vigor- 
ous action  the  mind  of  the  child.  He  must  do  more.  He  must  strive  to 
create  a  thirst,  an  insatiable  craving  for  knowledge,  to  give  animation 
to  study  and  make  it  a  pleasure,  and  thus  to  communicate  an  impulse 
which  will  endure  when  the  instructions  of  the  school  are  closed.  The 
mark  of  a  good  teacher  is,  not  only  that  he  produces  great  effort  in 
his  pupils,  but  that  he  dismisses  them  from  his  care,  conscious  of  hav- 
ing only  laid  the  foundation  of  knowledge,  and  anxious  and  resolved 
to  improve  themselves.  One  of  the  sure  signs  of  the  low  state  of  in- 
struction among  us  is,  that  the  young,  on  leaving  school,  feel  as  if  the 
work  of  intellectual  culture  were  done,  and  give  up  steady,  vigorous 
effort  for  higher  truth  and  wider  knowledge.  Our  daughters  at  sixteen, 
and  our  sons  at  eighteen  or  twenty,  have  finished  their  education.  The 
true  use  of  a  school  is.  to  enable  and  dispose  the  pupil  to  learn  through 
life;  and  if  so,  who  does  not  see  that  the  office  of  teacher  requires 
men  of  enlarged  and  liberal  minds,  and  of  winning  manners — in  other 
words,  that  it  re.quires  as  cultivated  men  as  can  be  found  in  society. 
If  to  drive  and  to  drill  were  the  chief  duties  of  an  instructor —  if  to 
force  into  the  mind  an  amount  of  lifeless  knowledge — to  make  the 
child  a  machine — to  create  a  repugnance  to  books,  to  mental  labor,  to 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge — were  the  great  objects  of  the  school- 
room, then  the  teacher  might  be  chosen  on  the  principles  which  now 
govern  the  school-committees  in  no  small  part  of  our  country.  Then 
the  man  who  can  read,  write,  cypher,  and  whip,  and  will  exercise  his 
gifts  at  the  lowest  price,  deserves  the  precedence  which  he  now  too 
often  enjoys.  But  if  the  human  being  be  something  more  than  a  block 
or  a  brute — if  he  have  powers  which  proclaim  him  a  child  of  God,  and 
which  were  given  for  noble  action  and  perpetual  progress,  then  a 
better  order  of  things  should  begin  among  us,  and  truly  enlightened 
men  should  be  summoned  to  the  work  of  education." 

In  an  address  delivered  at  the  Odeon,  in  Boston,  on  the 
28th  of  Feb.,  1837,  he  thus  advocates  the  establishment  of 
an  institution  for  the  professional  training  of  teachers : 

"We  need  an  institution  for  the  formation  of  better  teachers;  and, 
until  this  step  is  taken,  we  can  make  no  important  progress.  The  most 
crying  want  in  this  commonwealth  is  the  want  of  accomplished  teach- 
ers. We  boast  of  our  schools;  but  our  schools  do  comparatively  little, 
for  want  of  educated  instructors.  Without  good  teaching,  a  school  is 
but  a  name.  An  institution  for  training  men  to  train  the  young,  would 
be  a  fountain  of  living  waters,  sending  forth  streams  to  refresh  present 
and  future  ages.  As  yet,  our  legislators  have  denied  to  the  poor  and 
laboring  classes  this  principal  means  of  their  elevation.  We  trust  they 
will  not  always  prove  blind  to  the  highest  interest  of  the  state. 


118  DB.    CHANNING    ON   EDUCATION   AND    TEACHERS. 

We  want  better  teachers,  and  more  teachers,  for  all  classes  of  so- 
ciety— for  rich  and  poor,  for  children  and  adults.  We  want  that  the 
resources  of  the  community  should  be  directed  to  the  procuring  of 
better  instructors,  as  its  highest  concern.  One  of  the  surest  signs  of 
the  regeneration  of  society  will  be,  the  elevation  of  the  art  of  teaching 
to  the  highest  rank  in  the  community.  When  a  people  shall  learn  that 
its  greatest  benefactors  and  most  important  members,  are  men  devoted 
to  the  liberal  instruction  of  all  its  classes — to  the  work  of  raising  to 
life  its  buried  intellect,  it  will  have  opened  to  itself  the  path  of  true 
glory.  This  truth  is  making  its  way.  Socrates  is  now  regarded  as  the 
greatest  man  in  an  age  of  great  men.  The  name  of  king  has  grown 
dim  before  that  of  apostle.  To  teach,  whether  by  word  or  action,  is  the 
highest  function  on  earth. 

Nothing  is  more  needed,  than  that  men  of  superior  gifts,  and  of 
benevolent  spirit,  should  devote  themselves  to  the  instruction  of  the 
less  enlightened  classes  in  the  great  end  of  life — in  the  dignity  of  their 
nature — in  their  rights  and  duties — in  the  history,  laws,  and  institu- 
tions of  their  country — in  the  philosophy  of  their  employments — in  the 
laws,  harmonies,  and  productions  of  outward  nature,  and,  especially, 
in  the  art  of  bringing  up  children  in  health  of  body,  and  in  vigor  and 
purity  of  mind.  We  need  a  new  profession  or  vocation,  the  object  of 
which  shall  be  to  wake  up  the  intellect  in  those  spheres  where  it  is 
now  buried  in  habitual  slumber. 

We  want  a  class  of  liberal-minded  instructors,  whose  vocation  it 
shall  be,  to  place  the  views  of  the  most  enlightened  minds  within  the 
reach  of  a  more  and  more  extensive  portion  of  their  fellow-creatures. 
The  wealth  of  a  community  should  flow  out  like  water  for  the  prepar- 
ation and  employment  of  such  teachers — for  enlisting  powerful  and 
generous  minds  in  the  work  of  giving  impulse  to  their  race. 

Nor  let  it  be  said  that  men,  able  and  disposed  to  carry  on  this  work, 
must  not  be  looked  for  in  such  a  world  as  ours.  Christianity,  which 
has  wrought  so  many  miracles  of  beneficence — which  has  sent  forth 
so  many  apostles  and  martyrs — so  many  Howards  and  Clarksons,  can 
raise  up  laborers  for  this  harvest  also.  Nothing  is  needed  but  a  new 
pouring  out  of  the  spirit  of  Christian  love — nothing  but  a  new  compre- 
hension of  the  brotherhood  of  the  human  race,  to  call  forth  efforts 
which  seem  impossibilities  in  a  self-seeking  and  self-indulging  age." 

From  the  outset,  Dr.  Charming  exhibited  great  interest 
in  the  establishment  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  the  per- 
manent organization  of  the  Normal  Schools.  In  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  Mr.  Mann,  in  August,  1837,  congratulating  him 
and  the  commonwealth  on  his  acceptance  of  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  the  Board,  he  says : 

"You  could  not  find  a  nobler  station.  Government  has  no  nobler  one 
to  give.  You  must  allow  me  to  labor  under  you  according  to  my  op- 
portunities. If  at  any  time  I  can  aid  you,  you  must  let  me  know,  and 
I  shall  be  glad  to  converse  with  you  always  about  your  operations. 
When  will  the  low,  degrading  party  quarrels  of  the  country  cease,  and 
the  better  minds  come  to  think  what  can  be  done  toward  a  substantial, 
generous  improvement  of  the  community?  'My  ear  is  pained,  my  very 
soul  is  sick,'  with  the  monotonous,  yet  furious  clamors  about  currency, 
banks,  &c.,  when  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  community  seem  hardly 
to  be  recognized  as  having  any  reality. 

If  we  can  but  turn  the  wonderful  energy  of  this  people  into  a  right 
channel,  what  a  new  heaven  and  earth  must  be  realized  among  us! 


DR.    CHANNING    ON    EDUCATION    AND    TEACHERS.  119 

And  I  do  not  despair.  Your  willingness  to  consecrate  yourself  to  this 
work,  is  a  happy  omen.  You  do  not  stand  alone,  or  form  a  rare  excep- 
tion to  the  times.  There  must  be  many  to  be  touched  by  the  same 
truths  which  are  stirring  you." 

A  few  months  afterward,  he  attended,  at  Taunton,  one  of 
the  series  of  county  conventions,  which  Mr.  Mann  held,  in 
pursuance  of  the  plan  of  the  Board,  to  attract  attention  to 
the  improvement  of  common  schools,  and  took  part  in  the 
proceedings  by  submitting  and  advocating  a  resolution 
affirming  the  immediate  and  pressing  necessity  of  public 
and  legislative  action  in  behalf  of  common  education.  We 
make  a  few  extracts  from  a  newspaper  report : 

"We  are  told  that  this  or  that  man  should  have  an  extensive  edu- 
cation; but,  that  another,  who  occupies  a  lower  place  in  society,  needs 
only  a  narrow  one:  that  the  governor  of  a  state  requires  a  thorough 
education,  while  the  humble  mechanic  has  need  only  to  study  his  last 
and  his  leather.  But  why  should  not  the  latter,  though  pursuing  an 
humble  occupation,  be  permitted  to  open  his  eyes  on  the  lights  of 
knowledge?  Has  he  not  a  soul  of  as  great  capacity  as  the  former?  Is 
he  not  sustaining  the  same  relations  as  a  parent,  a  citizen,  a  neighbor, 
and  as  a  subject  of  God's  moral  government?  To  educate  a  child  is,  in 
fact,  a  greater  work  than  to  perform  the  duties  of  a  governor.  What 
is  it?  It  is  to  take  the  direction  of  mind,  to  cultivate  the  powers  of 
thought,  and  to  teach  the  duties  which  we  owe  to  God  and  to  our 
neighbor.  Can  a  parent  teach  his  child  these  duties,  unless  he  has 
learned  them  himself?  Every  one,  no  matter  what  is  his  occupation 
or  place,  needs  an  education,  in  order  that  he  may  have  the  proper  use 
of  his  powers,  and  be  enabled  to  improve  them  through  life. 

Some  say,  were  these  views  of  education  to  prevail,  there  would  be 
little  or  no  work  done — manual  labor  would  fail.  But  for  the  purpose 
of  working  effectually,  one  should  be  intelligent;  he  will  bring  the 
more  to  pass,  because  he  labors  for  some  known  object,  and  is  stimu- 
lated by  motives  which  he  understands  and  feels. 

We  want  worthy  laborers,  who  exalt  themselves  while  they  benefit 
others.  The  circumstances  in  which  they  are  placed,  are  fitted  to  call 
forth  their  mental  powers,  to  awaken  thought,  and  to  impress  them 
with  their  responsibilities.  They  are  brought  into  intimate  connection 
with  their  fellow-men,  and,  if  qualified  by  education,  may  exert  over 
them,  even  in  the  humble  walks  of  life,  a  most  salutary  influence. 

He, said,  that,  on  the  same  principle  that  he  would  educate  one,  he 
would  educate  all.  The  poor  man,  as  to  his  natural  capacity,  does  not 
differ  from  others.  He  is  equally  susceptible  of  improvement,  and 
would  receive  as  great  advantages  as  others  from  a  well-bestowed  ed- 
ucation. 

Other  views,  he  said,  made  him  desire  that  education  might  be  dif- 
fused among  all  classes.  Our  institutions  demand  this  general  diffus- 
ion. They  are  for  the  common  mass  of  the  people;  and  unless  the  peo- 
ple are  educated,  they  both  lose  the  benefit  of  these  institutions  and 
weaken  their  power.  Liberty  requires  that  every  citizen,  in  order  to  its 
proper  enjoyment,  should  have  the  means  of  elevation. 

Again,  all  participate  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  country.  Men,  in  oth- 
er countries,  have  been  fighting  to  be  sovereigns.  Here  every  man  is 
one.  Every  citizen  participates  in  legislating  for  the  commonwealth, 
and  in  administering  the  government.  Ought  not  every  man  who  has 


120  DR.    CHANNING    ON    EDUCATION    AND    TEACHERS. 

such  duties  devolving  on  him,  to  receive  as  liberal  a  training  as  pos- 
sible? 

For  the  sake  of  union,  this  should  be  done;  especially  in  our  coun- 
try, where  there  are  no  titled  orders  born  to  higher  privileges  than 
others.  In  other  countries,  the  class  in  power  have  the  principal  means 
of  knowledge,  and,  in  order  to  keep  the  civil  power  in  their  hands, 
their  object  is  to  withhold  from  others  the  means  of  mental  improve- 
ment. But,  according  to  the  genius  of  our  government,  education  must 
bring  all  conditions  and  all  classes  together. 

He  said,  in  proportion  as  men  are  educated,  they  are  more  on  an 
equality  as  to  property.  They  communicate  together — maintain  a  more 
agreeable  intercourse — live  in  more  harmony,  and  in  greater  love.  Bar- 
riers are  broken  down;  and  society,  by  its  general  culture,  is  raised  to 
a  higher  state  of  refinement  and  happiness. 

He  rejoiced  that  we  had  colleges  liberally  endowed;  and  he  would  not 
divert  from  them  one  stream  of  bounty.  But  he  thought  more  of  the 
mass  than  of  the  few;  and  wanted  men  educated  for  the  community 
at  large,  and  not  for  themselves  alone.  He  rejoiced  that  we  had  acad- 
emies, and  that  they  were  rising  in  importance;  but  he  felt  a  deeper 
interest  in  the  common  schools.  He  desired  the  education  of  all  the  cit- 
izens, not  as  a  politician,  or  as  one  seeking  public  favor;  he  was  a  can- 
didate for  no  office;  but  he  desired  it  as  a  man — a  friend  to  his  race. 

He  affirmed  that  the  common  schools  have  not  kept  pace  with  our 
wealth;  that  it  is  more  essential  to  the  prosperity  of  a  school  that  it 
have  a  good  teacher,  than  it  is  to  the  prosperity  of  a  nation  that  it 
have  wise  and  able  rulers.  We  have,  in  many  of  our  schools,  teachers 
who  do  honor  to  the  name:  many,  he  regretted  to  say,  were  untaught 
and  incompetent.  They  were  not  so  much  to  blame,  because  they  were 
not  furnished  with  those  means  for  qualifying  themselves,  which  every 
other  profession  provides  for  those  who  would  enter  it.  He  most  deeply 
regretted  that  our  Legislature  had  not  appropriated  their  surplus  funds 
last  winter,  in  establishing  an  institution  for  teachers.  How  much  more 
good  those  large  funds  would  have  done!  He  hoped  no  more  would 
come  into  their  hands  to  be  disposed  of  as  these  had  been. 

He  could  speak  from  experience.  He  was,  for  some  time,  in  early 
life,  a  teacher,  and  he  ever  felt  pain  in  remembering  his  deficiencies. 
Though  he  had  no  reason  to  suppose  he  was  then  behind  others  in  the 
same  employment,  yet  the  remembrance  of  his  lack  of  skill  in  dis- 
cipline, and  ignorance  of  the  modes  of  access  to  the  youthful  mind, 
ever  gave  him  deep  regret.  He  had  not,  while  filling  the  responsible 
station  of  teacher,  learned  how  to  make  education  a  pleasure  to  a 
child. 

But  an  institution  for  teachers  is  not  all.  There  must  be  funds 
raised  to  pay  them  for  their  laborious  services.  How  strange  that 
the  man  who  has  the  care  of  our  children,  should  be  thought  to  hold 
so  low  a  place!  But  it  must  be  seen  and  felt  that  his  services  are  of 
vital  importance,  and  deserve  a  generous  recompense.  In  Prussia, 
where  education  has  made  great  progress,  teachers  are  obtained  eas- 
ily, and  at  a  moderate  expense,  because  other  lucrative  occupations 
are  not  open  to  them.  In  this  country  other  occupations  afford  higher 
wages,  and,  therefore,  that  of  a  teacher  has  not  risen  to  the  honor 
of  a  profession.  No  good  teacher  can  be  obtained  without  ample  com- 
pensation. Boston,  though  recently  disgraced  by  its  mobs,  is  doing 
much  in  compensating  its  teachers — is  giving  as  great  a  salary  to  one 
of  its  teachers  as  to  its  mayor. 

How  is  Massachusetts,  he  asked,  to  sustain  its  high  character  and 
rank?  Look  on  the  map,  and  you  perceive  how  diminutive  it  is  in 
size,  compared  with  many  of  the  other  states.  What  is  to  prevent 


DB.    CHANNING    ON    EDUCATION    AND    TEACHERS.  121 

this  little  state  from  falling  behind  others  which  have  greater  natural 
advantages,  and  losing  its  influence?  Nothing  but  cultivating  the 
minds  of  its  citizens — cultivating  them  in  learning  and  virtue.  On 
this  foundation  its  eminence  and  greatness  will  stand  firm." 

In  a  discourse  on  self-culture,  delivered  in  Boston,  in 
1838,  in  the  course  of  Franklin  Lectures,  which  were  at- 
tended mainly  by  those  who  were  occupied  by  manual  labor, 
Dr.  Channing  holds  the  following  language : 

"They,  whose  childhood  has  been  neglected,  though  they  may  make 
progress  in  future  life,  can  hardly  repair  the  loss  of  their  first  years; 
and  I  say  this,  that  we  may  all  be  excited  to  save  our  children  from 
this  loss — that  we  may  prepare  them,  to  the  extent  of  our  power,  for 
an  effectual  use  of  all  the  means  of  self-culture,  which  adult  age  may 
bring  with  it.  With  these  views,  I  ask  you  to  look  with  favor  on  the 
recent  exertions  of  our  Legislature,  and  of  private  citizens,  in  behalf 
of  our  public  schools,  the  chief  hope  of  our  country.  The  Legislature 
has,  of  late,  appointed  a  board  of  education,  with  a  secretary,  who 
is  to  devote  his  whole  time  to  the  improvement  of  public  schools.  An 
individual  more  fitted  to  this  office  than  the  gentleman  who  now 
fills  it,  (Horace  Mann,  Esq.,)  can  not,  I  believe,  be  found  in  our 
community;  and  if  his  labors  shall  be  crowned  with  success,  he  will 
earn  a  title  to  the  gratitude  of  the  good  people  of  this  state,  unsur- 
passed by  that  of  any  other  living  citizen.  Let  me  also  recall  to  your 
minds  a  munificent  individual,  (Edmund  Dwight,  Esq.,)  who,  by  a  gen- 
erous donation,  has  encouraged  the  Legislature  to  resolve  on  the 
establishment  of  one  or  more  institutions  called  Normal  Schools,  the 
object  of  which  is,  to  prepare  accomplished  teachers  of  youth — a  work, 
on  which  the  progress  of  education  depends  more  than  on  any  other 
measure.  The  efficient  friends  of  education  are  the  true  benefactors 
of  their  country,  and  their  names  deserve  to  be  handed  down  to  that 
posterity  for  whose  highest  wants  they  are  so  generously  providing. 
*  *  *  We  need  for  our  schools  gifted  men  and  women,  worthy,  by 
their  intelligence  and  their  moral  power,  to  be  intrusted  with  a  na- 
tion's youth;  and,  to  gain  these,  we  must  pay  them  liberally,  as  well 
as  afford  other  proofs  of  the  consideration  in  which  we  hold  them.  In 
the  present  state  of  the  country,  when  so  many  paths  of  wealth  and 
promotion  are  opened,  superior  men  can  not  be  won  to  an  office  so 
responsible  and  laborious  as  that  of  teaching,  without  stronger  induce- 
ments than  are  now  offered,  except  in  some  of  our  large  cities.  The 
office  of  instructor  ought  to  rank,  and  be  recompensed,  as  one  of  the 
most  honorable  in  society;  and  I  see  not  how  this  is  to  be  done,  at 
least  in  our  day,  without  appropriating  to  it  the  public  domain.  This 
is  the  people's  property,  and  the  only  part  of  their  property  which  is 
likely  to  be  soon  devoted  to  the  support  of  a  high  order  of  institutions 
for  public  education.  This  object,  interesting  to  all  classes  of  society, 
has  peculiar  claims  on  those  whose  means  of  improvement  are  re- 
stricted by  narrow  circumstances.  The  mass  of  the  people  should 
devote  themselves  to  it  as  one  man — should  toil  for  it  with  one  soul. 
Mechanics,  farmers,  laborers!  let  the  country  echo  with  your  united 
cry,  'The  public  lands  for  education.'  Send  to  the  public  council  men 
who  will  plead  this  cause  with  power.  No  party  triumphs,  no  trades- 
unions,  no  associations,  can  so  contribute  to  elevate  you  as  the  meas- 
ure now  proposed.  Nothing  but  a  higher  education  can  raise  you  in 
influence  and  true  dignity.  The  resources  of  the  public  domain,  wisely 
applied  for  successive  generations  to  the  culture  of  society  and  of 
the  individual,  would  create  a  new  people — would  awaken  through 
this  community  intellectual  and  moral  energies,  such  as  the  record  of 
no  country  display,  and  as  would  command  the  respect  and  emulation 


122  DR.    CHANNING    ON    EDUCATION    AND    TEACHERS. 

of  the  civilized  world.  In  this  grand  object,  the  working-men  of  all 
parties,  and  in  all  divisions  of  the  land,  should  join  with  an  enthusiasm 
not  to  be  withstood.  They  should  separate  it  from  all  narrow  and 
local  strifes.  They  should  not  suffer  it  to  be  mixed  up  with  the 
schemes  of  politicians.  In  it,  they  and  their  children  have  an  infin- 
ite stake.  May  they  be  true  to  themselves,  to  posterity,  to  their  coun- 
try, to  freedom,  to  the  cause  of  mankind." 

In  a  letter  written  in  1841,  in  reply  to  a  communication 
respecting  the  Normal  School  at  Lexington,  he  refers  to  his 
own  experience  as  a  teacher,  and  to  the  attempt  in  the  Leg- 
islature to  break  down  the  Normal  Schools : 

"I  have  felt,  as  you  well  know,  a  deep  interest  in  their  success,  (Nor- 
mal Schools,)  though,  perhaps,  you  do  not  know  all  the  reasons  of  it. 
I  began  life  as  a  teacher,  and  my  own  experience  has  made  me  feel 
the  importance  of  training  the  teacher  for  his  work.  I  was  not  more 
deficient  than  most  young  men  who  pass  through  college.  Perhaps 
I  may  say,  without  presumption,  that  I  was  better  fitted  than  most 
to  take  charge  of  a  school;  and  yet  I  look  back  on  no  part  of  my  life 
with  so  much  pain  as  on  that  which  I  gave  to  school-keeping.  The 
interval  of  forty  years  has  not  relieved  me  from  the  sorrow  and  self- 
reproach  which  the  recollection  of  it  calls  forth.  How  little  did  I  do 
for  the  youthful,  tender  minds  intrusted  to  me!  I  was  not  only  a  poor 
teacher,  but,  what  was  worse,  my  inexperience  in  the  art  of  whole- 
some discipline  led  to  the  infliction  of  useless  and  hurtful  punish- 
ments. I  was  cruel  through  ignorance;  and  this  is  the  main  source 
of  cruelty  in  schools.  Force,  brute  force,  is  called  in  to  supply  the 
place  of  wisdom.  I  feel  myself  bound  to  make  this  confession  as 
some  expiation  for  my  errors.  I  know  the  need  of  a  Normal  School. 
I  speak  not  from  speculation,  but  sad  experience. 

But,  indeed,  does  it  not  stand  to  reason,  that  where  all  other  voca- 
tions need  apprenticeship,  the  highest  of  all  vocations — that  of  awak- 
ening, guiding,  enlightening  the  human  soul — must  require  serious 
preparation?  That  attempts  should  have  been  made  in  the  Legislature 
to  break  down  our  Normal  Schools,  and  almost  with  success  is  one  of 
the  most  discouraging  symptoms  of  our  times.  It  shows  that  the 
people  will  not  give  their  thoughts  to  the  dearest  interest  of  society; 
for  any  serious  thought  would  have  led  them  to  frown  down  such  ef- 
forts in  a  moment.  I  rejoice  that  the  friends  of  education  are  begin- 
ning to  visit  the  Normal  School  at  Lexington.  I  earnestly  implore  for 
it  the  blessing  of  Heaven." 


NORMAL  SCHOOLS 

AND  TEACHERS'   SEMINARIES. 

BY 
CALVIN  E.  STOWE,  D.  D. 


The  following  remarks  were  originally  prepared  and  de- 
livered as  an  Address  before  the  College  of  Professional 
Teachers  in  Cincinnati  and  Columbus,  Ohio.  They  were  first 
published  in  the  American  Biblical  Repository  for  July, 
1839,  and  in  the  same  year  republished  in  Boston  by  Marsh, 
Capen,  Lyon  and  Webb,  in  a  little  volume,  with  the  author's 
"Report  on  Elementary  Public  Instruction  in  Europe,  which 
was  made  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Ohio,  in  December, 
1837." 

"Ich  versprach  Gott :  Ich  will  jedes  preussische  Bauerkind  fur  ein  Wesen  ansehen, 
das  mich  bei  Gott  verklagen  kann,  wenn  ich  ihm  nicht  die  beste  Menschen-und-Chris- 
ten-Bildung  schaffe,  die  ich  ihm  zu  schaffen  vermag." 

"I  promised  God,  that  I  would  look  upon  every  Prussian  peasant  child  aa  a  being 
who  could  complain  of  me  before  God,  if  I  did  not  provide  for  him  the  best  educa- 
tion, as  a  man  and  a  Christian,  which  it  was  possible  for  me  to  provide." — Dinter1* 
Letter  to  Baron  Von  Altenstein. 

When  the  benevolent  Franke  turned  his  attention  to  the  subject  of 
popular  education  in  the  city  of  Hamburgh,  late  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  he  soon  found  that  children  could  not  be  well  taught  with- 
out good  teachers,  and  that  but  few  good  teachers  could  be  found  un- 
less they  were  regularly  trained  for  the  profession.  Impressed  with 
this  conviction,  he  bent  all  his  energies  toward  the  establishment  of 
a  teachers'  Seminary,  in  which  he  finally  succeeded,  at  Halle,  in 
Prussia,  about  the  year  1704;*  and  from  this  first  institution  of  the 
kind  in  Europe,  well  qualified  teachers  were  soon  spread  over  all  the 
north  of  Germany,  who  prepared  the  way  for  that  great  revolution  in 
public  instruction,  which  has  since  been  so  happily  accomplished 
under  the  auspices  of  Frederick  William  III.  and  his  praiseworthy  co- 
adjutors. Every  enlightened  man,  who,  since  the  time  of  Franke,  has 
in  earnest  turned  his  attention  to  the  same  subject,  has  been  brought 
to  the  same  result;  and  the  recent  movements  in  France,  in  Scotland; 
in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  Ohio,  and  other  States  in 
the  American  Union,  all  attest  the  very  great  difficulty,  if  not  entire 
impossibility,  of  carrying  out  an  efficient  system  of  public  instruction 
without  seminaries  expressly  designed  for  the  preparation  of  teachers. 

Having  devoted  some  attention  to  this  subject,  and  having  spent 
considerable  time  in  examining  institutions  of  the  kind  already  estab- 
lished in  Europe,  I  propose  in  this  paper  to  exhibit  the  result  of  my 
investigations.  In  exhibiting  this  result,  I  have  thought  proper  to 
draw  out,  somewhat  in  detail,  what  I  suppose  would  be  the  best  plan, 
on  the  whole,  without  expecting  that  all  parts  of  the  plan,  in  the  pres- 
ent state  of  education  in  our  country,  will  be  carried  into  immediate 
execution.  I  propose  what  I  think  ought  to  be  aimed  at,  and  what, 
I  doubt  not,  will  ultimately  be  attained,  if  the  spirit  which  is  now 
awake  on  the  subject  be  not  suffered  again  to  sleep. 

*See  page  241. 


124  STOWE   ON    NORMAL    SCHOOLS. 

The  sum  of  what  I  propose  is  contained  in  the  six  following  propos- 
itions, namely: 

I.  The  interests  of  popular  education  in  each  State  demand  the  es- 
tablishment, at  the  seat  of  government,  and  under  the  patronage  of 
the  legislature,  of  a  NORMAL  SCHOOL,!  that  is,  a  Teachers'  Seminary 
and  Model-school,  for  the  instruction  and  practice  of  teachers  in  the 
science  of  education  and  the  art  of  teaching. 

II.  Pupils  should  not  be  received  into  the  Teachers'  Seminary  under 
sixteen  years  of  age,  nor  until  they  are  well  versed  in  all  the  branches 
usually  taught  in  common  schools. 

III.  The  model-school  should  comprise  the  various  classes  of  chil- 
dren usually  admitted  to  the  common  schools,  and  should  be  subject 
to  the  same  general  discipline  and  cc-urse  of  study. 

IV.  The  course  of  instruction  in  the  Teachers'  Seminary  should  in- 
clude three  years,  and  the  pupils  be  divided  into  three  classes,  accord- 
ingly. 

V.  The   senior  classes  in  the   Teachers'   Seminary  should    be    em- 
ployed,  under  the  immediate   instruction  of  their  professors,   as   in- 
structors in  the  model-school. 

VI.  The   course   of   instruction   in   the   Teachers'    Seminary   should 
comprise   lectures   and   recitations   on   the   following  topics,   together 
with  such  others  as  further  observation  and  experience  may  show  to 
be  necessary: 

1.  A  thorough,  scientific,  and  demonstrative  study  of  all  the  branch- 
es to  be  taught  in  the  common  schools,  with  directions  at  every  step 
as  to  the  best  method  of  inculcating  each  lesson  upon  children  of  dif- 
ferent dispositions  and  capacities,  and  various  intellectual  habits. 

2.  The  philosophy  of  mind,  particularly  in  reference  to  its  suscep- 
tibility of  receiving  impressions  from  mind. 

3.  The  peculiarities  of  intellectual  and  moral  development  in  chil- 
dren, as  modified  by  sex,  parental  character,  wealth  or  poverty,  city 
or  country,  family  government,  indulgent  or  severe,  fickle  or  steady, 
&c.,  &c. 

4.  The  science  of  education  in  general,  and  full  illustrations  of  the 
difference  between  education  and  mere  instruction. 

5.  The  art  of  teaching. 

6.  The  art  of  governing  children,  with  special  reference  to  impart- 
ing and  keeping  alive  a  feeling  of  love  for  children. 

7.  History  of  education,  including  an  accurate  outline  of  the  educa- 
tional systems  of  different  ages  and  nations,  the  circumstances  which 
gave  rise  to  them,  the  principles  on  which  they  were  founded,  the  ends 
which  they  aimed  to  accomplish,  their  successes  and  failures,  their 
permanency  and  changes,  how  far  they  influenced  individual  and  na- 
tional character,  how  far  any  of  them  might  have  originated  in  pre- 
meditated plan  on  the  part  of  their  founders,  whether  they  secured 
the  intelligence,  virtue,  and  happiness  of  the  people,  or  otherwise,  with 
the  causes,  &c. 

8.  The  rules  of  health,  and  the  laws  of  physical  development. 

9.  Dignity  and  importance  of  the  teacher's  office. 

10.  Special  religious  obligations  of  teachers  in  respect  to  benevolent 
devotedness  to  the  inetllectual  and  moral  welfare  of  society,  habits  of 
entire  self-control,  purity  of  mind,  elevation  of  character,  &c. 

tThe  French  adjective  normal  is  derived  from  the  Latin  noun  norma,  which  signi- 
fies o  carpenter's  square,  a  rule,  a  pattern,  a  model;  and  the  very  general  use  of  this 
term  to  designate  institutions  for  the  preparation  of  teachers,  leads  us  at  once  to  the 
idea  of  a  model-school  for  practice,  as  an  essential  constituent  part  of  a  Teacher's 
Seminary. 


8TOWE   ON    NORMAL    SCHOOLS.  125 

11.  The  Influence  which  the  school  should  exert  on  civilization  and 
the  progress  of  society. 

12.  The  elements  of  Latin,  together  with  the  German,  French,  and 
Spanish  languages. 

On  each  of  the  topics  above  enumerated,  I  shall  attempt  to  offer 
such  remarks  as  may  be  necessary  to  their  more  full  development  and 
illustration;  and  then  state  the  argument  in  favor  of,  and  answer 
the  objections  which  may  be  urged  against,  the  establishment  of  such 
an  institution  as  is  here  contemplated. 

To  begin  with  the  first  proposition. 

I.  The  interests  of  popular  education  in  each  state  demand  the  es- 
tablishment, at  the  seat  of  government,  and  under  the  patronage  of 
the  legislature,  of  a  Normal  School,  that  is,  a  Teachers'  Seminary  and 
model-school,  for  the  instruction  and  practice  of  teachers  in  the 
science  of  education  and  the  art  of  teaching. 

If  there  be  necessity  for  such  an  institution,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  legislature  should  patronize  and  sustain  it;  for,  new  as 
our  country  is,  and  numerous  as  are  the  objects  to  which  individual 
capital  must  be  applied,  there  can  be  no  great  hope,  for  many  years 
to  come,  of  seeing  such  institutions  established  and  supported  by  pri- 
vate munificence.  It  is  a  very  appropriate  object  of  legislative  pat- 
ronage; for,  as  the  advantages  of  such  an  institution  are  clearly  open 
to  all  the  citizens  of  the  State,  and  equally  necessary  to  all,  it  is  right 
that  each  should  sustain  his  proper  share  of  the  expense. 

Reserving  my  general  argument  in  favor  of  these  establishments 
till  after  a  more  full  development  of  their  object,  organization,  and 
course  of  study,  I  shall  confine  my  remarks  under  this  head  to  the  sub- 
ject of  legislative  patronage,  and  the  influence  which  such  an  institu- 
tion would  exert,  through  the  legislature  and  officers  of  government, 
on  the  people  at  large.  And  in  order  that  the  institution  may  exert 
the  influence  here  contemplated,  it  will  appear  obviously  necessary 
that  it  be  placed  at  the  seat  of  government. 

Popular  legislators  ought  to  have  some  objects  in  view  besides  the 
irritating  and  often  petty  questions  of  party  politics.  Any  observing 
man,  who  has  watched  the  progress  of  popular  legislation  among  us, 
cannot  but  have  noticed  the  tendency  of  continued  and  uninterrupted 
party  bickering  to  narrow  the  mind  and  sour  the  temper  of  political 
men,  to  make  them  selfish,  unpatriotic,  and  unprincipled.  It  is  highly 
necessary  for  their  improvement  as  men,  and  as  republican  law-givers, 
that  the  bitterness  and  bigotry  of  party  strife  should  sometimes  be 
checked  by  some  great  object  of  public  utility,  in  which  good  men 
of  all  parties  may  unite,  and  the  contemplation  and  discussion  of 
which  shall  enlarge  the  views  and  elevate  the  affections.  The  legis- 
latures of  several  states  have  already  had  experience  of  these  bene- 
fits. The  noble  institutions  for  deaf  mutes,  for  the  blind,  and  for  the 
insane,  which  have  grown  up  under  their  care,  and  been  sustained 
by  their  bounty,  are  not  less  beneficial  by  the  moral  influence  they 
exert,  every  year,  on  the  officers  of  government  who  witness  their 
benevolent  operations,  than  by  the  physical  and  intellectual  blessings 
which  they  confer  on  the  unfortunate  classes  of  persons  for  whom 
they  were  more  particularly  designed.  Who  can  witness  the  pro- 
ficiency of  the  blind  and  the  mute  in  that  knowledge  which  constitutes 
the  charm  of  life,  as  witnessed  in  the  annual  exhibitions  of  these 
institutions  at  Columbus,  during  the  sessions  of  the  legislature,  with- 
out feeling  the  blessedness  of  benevolence,  and  inwardly  resolving  to 
be  himself  benevolent?  Without  some  such  objects  in  view,  political 
character  deteriorates,  and  the  legislator  sinks  to  the  demagogue. 
When  our  American  Congress  has  had  noble  objects  in  view;  when 


126  STOWE   ON   NORMAL   SCHOOLS. 

it  has  been  struggling  for  the  rights  of  man,  and  the  great  principles 
which  are  the  foundations  of  free  institutions,  it  has  been  the  nursery 
of  patriotism  and  the  theater  of  great  thoughts  and  mighty  deeds;  but 
when  its  objects  have  been  mean;  and  its  aims  selfish,  how  sad  the 
reverse  in  respect  to  its  moral  character  and  national  influence! 

Colleges,  and  institutions  for  the  higher  branches  of  classical  learn- 
ing, have  seldom  flourished  in  this  country  under  legislative  patron- 
age; because  the  people  at  large,  not  perceiving  that  these  institutions 
are  directly  beneficial  to  them,  allow  their  legislators  to  give  them  only 
a  hesitating,  reluctant,  and  insufficient  support.  No  steady,  well-digest- 
ed plan  of  improvement  is  carried  consistently  through,  but  the  meas- 
ures are  vacillating,  contradictory,  and  often  destructive,  not  from 
want  of  sagacity  to  perceive  what  is  best,  but  simply  from  want  of  in- 
terest in  the  object,  and  a  consequent  determination  to  maintain  it 
at  the  cheapest  rate.  But  an  institution  of  the  kind  here  contemplated, 
the  people  at  large  will  feel  to  be  for  their  immediate  benefit.  It  is  to 
qualify  teachers  for  the  instruction  of  their  own  children;  and  among 
the  people  throughout  most  of  the  free  States,  there  is  an  appreciation 
of  the  advantages  and  necessity  of  good  common-school  instruction, 
which  makes  them  willing  to  incur  heavy  sacrifices  for  the  sake  of 
securing  it.  They  will,  therefore,  cheerfully  sustain  their  legislators 
in  any  measure  which  is  seen  to  be  essential  to  the  improvement  and 
perfection  of  the  common-school  system;  and  that  the  establishment 
of  a  Normal  School  is  essential  to  this,  I  expect  to  prove  in  the  course 
of  this  discussion. 

Supposing  the  institution  to  be  established  at  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, under  proper  auspices,  the  legislature  would  every  year  witness 
its  beneficial  results;  they  would  attend  the  exhibitions  of  its  pupils 
both  in  the  seminary  and  in  the  model-school,  as  they  now,  in  several 
States,  attend  the  exhibitions  of  the  blind  and  mute;  their  views  would 
be  enlarged,  their  affections  moved,  their  ideas  of  what  constitutes 
good  education  settled;  they  would  return  to  their  constituents  full 
of  zeal  and  confidence  in  the  educational  cause,  and  impart  the  same 
to  them;  they  would  learn  how  schools  ought  to  be  conducted,  the 
respective  duties  of  parents,  teachers,  and  school  officers;  they  would 
become  the  most  efficient  missionaries  of  public  instruction;  and,  ere 
long,  one  of  the  most  important  errands  from  their  constituents  would 
be,  to  find  for  them,  in  the  Teachers'  Seminary,  a  suitable  instructor 
for  their  district  school.  Such  an  influence  will  be  to  the  school  sys- 
tem, what  electricity  is  to  the  operations  of  nature,  an  influence  un- 
ceasing, all-pervading,  lightning-winged. 

The  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  in  every  State,  would  be 
essentially  aided  by  such  an  institution  at  the  seat  of  government. 
He  greatly  needs  it  as  a  fulcrum  to  pry  over,  when  he  would  move 
the  legislature  or  the  people.  He  cannot  bring  the  legislature  to  the 
common  schools,  nor  these  to  the  legislature,  to  illustrate  existing 
deficiencies  or  recommend  improvements;  but  here  is  a  model  con- 
structed under  his  own  eye,  which  he  can  at  any  moment  exhibit 
to  the  legislature,  and  by  which  he  can  give  complete  illustrations  of 
all  his  views. 

As  the  young  men  in  the  seminary  grow  up,  he  watches  their  prog- 
ress, and  ascertains  the  peculiar  qualifications  and  essential  charac- 
teristics of  each  individual;  and,  as  he  passes  through  the  State,  and 
learns  the  circumstances  and  wants  of  each  community,  he  knows 
where  to  find  the  teacher  best  fitted  to  carry  out  his  views,  and  give 
efficiency  to  the  system  in  each  particular  location.  Nothing  is  lost; 
the  impression  which  he  makes  is  immediately  followed  up  and  deep- 
ened by  the  teacher,  before  it  has  time  to  cool  and  disappear.  A 


8TOWE   ON    NORMAL    SCHOOLS.  127 

superintendent  of  schools  without  a  Teachers'  Seminary,  is  a  general 
without  soldiers,  depending  entirely  on  the  services  of  such  volunteers 
as  he  can  pick  up  on  his  march,  most  of  whom  enlist  but  for  the  day, 
and  go  home  to  sleep  at  night. 

Such  is  a  brief  view  of  the  reasons  for  legislative  patronage,  and  a 
location  at  the  seat  of  government.  I  do  not  imagine  that  one  insti- 
tution will  be  enough  to  supply  the  wants  of  a  whole  state;  but  let 
THE  ONE  be  established  first,  and  whatever  others  are  needful  will 
speedily  follow.* 

We  now  proceed  to  our  second  general  proposition. 

II.  Pupils  should  not  be  received  into  the  Teachers'  Seminary  under 
sixteen  years  of  age,  nor  until  they  are  well  versed  in  all  the  branches 
usually  taught  in  the  common  schools. 

The  age  at  which  the  pupils  leave  the  common  school  is  the  proper 
age  for  entering  the  Teachers'  Seminary,  and  the  latter  should  begin 
just  where  the  former  closes.  This  is  young  enough;  for  few  persons 
have  their  judgments  sufficiently  matured,  or  their  feelings  under 
sufficient  control,  to  engage  in  school-teaching  by  themselves,  before 
they  are  twenty  years  old.  It  is  not  the  design  of  the  Teachers' 
Seminary  to  go  through  the  common  routine  of  the  common-school 
course,  but  a  thorough  grounding  in  this  is  to  be  assumed  as  the 
foundation  on  which  to  erect  the  structure  of  the  teachers'  education. 

III.  The  model-school  should  comprise  the  various  classes  of  chil- 
dren usually  admitted  to  the  common  schools,  and  should  be  subject 
to  the  same  general  discipline  and  course  of  study. 

The  model-school,  as  its  name  imports,  is  to  be  a  model  of  what  the 
common  school  ought  to  be;  and  it  must  be,  therefore,  composed  of 
like  materials,  and  subject  to  similar  rules.  The  model-school,  in 
fact,  should  be  the  common  school  of  the  place  in  which  the  Teachers' 
Seminary  is  situated;  it  should  aim  to  keep  in  advance  of  every  other 
school  in  the  State,  and  every  other  school  in  the  State  should  aim 
to  keep  up  with  that.  It  is  a  model  for  the  constant  inspection  of  the 
pupils  in  the  teachers'  department,  a  practical  illustration  of  the 
lessons  they  receive  from  their  professors;  the  proof-stone  by  which 
they  are  to  test  the  utility  of  the  abstract  principles  they  imbibe,  and 
on  which  they  are  to  exercise  and  Improve  their  gifts  of  teaching. 
Indeed,  as  School-counselor  Dinter  told  a  nobleman  of  East-Prussia,  to 
set  up  a  Teachers'  Seminary  without  a  model-school,  is  like  setting 
up  a  shoemaker's  shop  without  leather. 

IV.  The   course   of  instruction   in   the   Teachers'   Seminary   should 
include  three  years,  and  the  pupils  be  divided  into  three  classes,  ac- 
cordingly. 

The  course  of  study,  as  will  be  seen  by  inspecting  it  in  the  following 
pages,  cannot  well  be  completed  in  less  time  than  this;  this  has  been 
found  short  enough  for  professional  study  in  the  other  professions, 
which  is  generally  commenced  at  a  maturer  age,  and  after  the  pupil 
has  had  the  advantage  of  an  academical  or  collegiate  course;  and  if  it 
is  allowed  that  five  or  seven  years  are  not  too  much  to  be  spent  in 
acquiring  the  trade  of  a  blacksmith,  a  carpenter,  or  any  of  the  common 
indispensable  handcrafts,  surely  three  years  will  not  be  deemed  too 
much  for  the  difficult  and  most  important  art  of  teaching. 

*  This  article  was  written  in  its  special  reference  to  Ohio,  and  the  new  States  of 
the  West.  In  some  of  the  older  States,  the  expense  of  living  at  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment might  operate  as  an  objection  to  the  location  of  the  Seminary  there. 


128  STOWE   ON    NORMAL    SCHOOLS. 

V.  The  senior  class  in  the  Teachers'  Seminary  should  be  employed, 
under  the  immediate  inspection  of  their  professors,  as  instructors  in 
the  model-school. 

The  model-school  is  intended  to  be  not  only  an  illustration  of  the 
principles  inculcated  theoretically  in  the  seminary,  but  is  calculated 
also  as  a  school  for  practice,  in  which  the  seminary  pupils  may  learn, 
by  actual  experiment,  the  practical  bearing  of  the  principles  which 
they  have  studied.  After  two  years  of  theoretical  study,  the  pupils 
are  well  qualified  to  commence  this  practical  course,  under  the  imme- 
diate inspection  of  their  professors ;  and  the  model-school  being  under 
the  inspection  of  such  teachers,  it  is  obvious  that  its  pupils  can  suffer 
no  loss,  but  must  be  great  gainers  by  the  arrangement. 

This  is  a  part  of  the  system  for  training  teachers  which  cannot  be 
dispensed  with,  and  any  considerable  hope  of  success  retained.  To 
attempt  to  train  practical  teachers  without  it,  would  be  like  attempting 
to  train  sailors  by  keeping  boys  upon  Bowditch's  Navigator,  without 
ever  suffering  them  to  go  on  board  a  ship,  or  handle  a  ropeyarn.  One 
must  begin  to  teach,  before  he  can  begin  to  be  a  teacher;  and  it  is 
infinitely  better,  both  for  himself  and  his  pupils,  that  he  should  make 
this  beginning  under  the  eye  of  an  experienced  teacher,  who  can  give 
him  directions  and  point  out  his  errors,  than  that  he  should  blunder 
on  alone,  at  the  risk  of  ruining  multitudes  of  pupils,  before  he  can 
learn  to  teach  by  the  slow  process  of  unaided  experience. 

VI.  Course  of  instruction  in  the  Teachers'  Seminary. 

1.  A  thorough,  scientific,  and  demonstrative  study  of  all  branches 
to  be  taught  in  the  common  schools,  with  directions,  at  every  step,  as 
to  the  best  method  of  inculcating  each  lesson  on  children  of  different 
dispositions  and  capacities,  and  various  intellectual  habits. 

It  is  necessary  here  to  give  a  general  outline  of  a  course  of  study 
for  the  common  schools  of  this  country.  The  pupils  usually  in  at- 
tendance are  between  the  ages  of  six  and  sixteen,  and  I  would  arrange 
them  in  three  divisions,  as  follows: 

FIRST  DIVISION,  including  the  youngest  children,  and  those  least  ad- 
vanced, generally  between  the  ages  of  six  and  nine. 

Topics  of  Instruction — 1.  Familiar  conversational  teaching,  in  re- 
spect to  objects  which  fall  daily  under  their  notice,  and  in  respect  to 
their  moral  and  social  duties,  designed  to  awaken  their  powers  of 
observation  and  expression,  and  to  cultivate  their  moral  feelings. 

2.  Elements  of  reading. 

3.  Elements  of  writing. 

4.  Elements  of  numbers. 

5.  Exercises  of  the  voice  and  ear — singing  by  rote. 

6.  Select  readings  in  the  Pentateuch,  Psalms,  and  Gospels. 

SECOND  DIVISION,  including  those  more  advanced,  and  generally  be- 
tween the  ages  of  nine  and  twelve. 

Topics  of  Instruction. — 1.  Exercise  in  reading. 

2.  Exercises  in  writing. 

3.  Arithmetic. 

4.  Elements  of  geography,  and  geography  of  the  United  States. 

5.  History  of  the  United  States. 

6.  Moral  and  religious  instruction  in  select  Bible  narratives,  parables, 
and  proverbs. 

7.  Elements  of  music,  and  singing  by  note. 

8.  English  grammar  and  parsing. 


8TOWE   ON    NORMAL    SCHOOLS.  129 

THIRD  DIVISION,  most  advanced,  and  generally  between  the  ages  of 
twelve  and  sixteen. 

Topics  of  Instruction. — 1.  Exercises  in  reading  and  elocution. 

2.  Caligraphy,  stenography,  and  linear  drawing. 

3.  Algebra,  geometry,  and   trigonometry,   with   their  application   to 
civil  engineering,  surveying,  &c. 

4.  English  composition,  forms  of  business,  and  book-keeping. 

5.  General  geography,  or  knowledge  of  the  earth  and  of  mankind. 

6.  General  history. 

7.  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  several  States. 

8.  Elements  of  the  natural  sciences,  including  their  application  to 
the  arts  of  life,  such  as  agriculture,  manufacturers,  &c. 

9.  Moral  instruction   in   the   connected   Bible   history,   the   life   and 
discourses  of  Christ,  the  religious  observation  of  Nature,  and  history 
of  Christianity. 

10.  Science  and  art  of  vocal  and  instrumental  music. 

Thorough  instruction  on  all  these  topics  I  suppose  to  be  essential  to 
a  complete  common-school  education;  and  though  it  may  be  many 
years  before  our  schools  come  up  to  this  standard,  yet  I  think  nothing 
short  of  this  should  satisfy  us;  and,  as  fast  as  possible,  we  should  be 
laboring  to  train  teachers  capable  of  giving  instruction  in  all  these 
branches.  When  this  standard  for  the  common  school  has  been  at- 
tained, then,  before  the  pupil  is  prepared  to  enter  on  the  three  years' 
course  of  study  proposed  in  the  Teachers'  Seminary,  he  must  have 
studied  all  the  topics  above  enumerated,  as  they  ought  to  be  studied 
In  the  common  schools. 

The  study  of  a  topic,  however,  for  the  purpose  of  applying  it  to 
practical  use,  is  not  always  the  same  thing  as  studying  it  for  the 
purpose  of  teaching  it.  The  processes  are  often  quite  different.  A 
man  may  study  music  till  he  can  perform  admirably  himself,  and  yet 
possess  very  little  skill  in  teaching  others;  and  it  is  well  known  that 
the  most  successful  orators  are  not  unfrequently  the  very  worst  teach- 
ers of  elocution.  The  process  of  learning  for  practical  purposes  is 
mostly  that  of  combination  or  synthesis;  but  the  process  of  learning 
for  the  purpose  of  teaching  is  one  of  continued  and  minute  analysis, 
not  only  of  the  subject  itself,  but  of  all  the  movements  and  turnings 
of  the  feelers  of  the  mind,  the  little  antennae  by  which  it  seizes  and 
retains  its  hold  of  the  several  parts  of  a  topic.  Till  a  man  can  min- 
utely dissect,  not  only  the  subject  itself,  but  also  the  intellectual 
machinery  by  which  it  is  worked  up,  he  cannot  be  very  successful  as 
a  teacher.  The  orator  analyzes  his  subject,  and  disposes  its  several 
parts  in  the  order  best  calculated  for  effect;  but  the  mental  processes 
by  which  he  does  this,  which  constitute  the  tact  that  enables  him  to 
judge  right,  as  if  by  instinct,  are  generally  so  rapid,  so  evanescent, 
that  it  may  be  impossible  for  him  to  recall  them  so  as  to  describe 
them  to  another;  and  it  is  this  very  rapidity  of  intellectual  move- 
ment, which  gives  him  success  as  an  orator,  that  renders  it  the  more 
difficult  for  him  to  succeed  as  a  teacher.  The  musician  would  perform 
very  poorly,  who  should  stop  to  recognize  each  volition  that  moves  the 
muscles  which  regulate  the  movement  of  his  fingers  on  the  organ- 
keys  ;  but  he  who  would  teach  others  to  perform  gracefully  and  rapidly, 
must  give  attention  to  points  minute  as  these.  The  teacher  must 
stop  to  observe  and  analyze  each  movement  of  the  mind  itself,  as  it 
advances  on  every  topic;  but  men  of  genius  for  execution,  and  of 
great  practical  skill,  who  never  teach,  are  generally  too  impatient  to 

I 


130  STOWE   ON    NORMAL    SCHOOLS. 

make  this  minute  analysis,  and  often,  indeed,  form  such  habits  as  at 
length  to  become  incapable  of  it.  The  first  Duke  of  Marlborough 
was  one  of  the  most  profound  and  brilliant  military  men  that  ever 
lived;  but  he  had  been  so  little  accustomed  to  observe  the  process  of 
his  own  mind,  by  which  he  arrived  with  such  certainty  at  those 
astounding  results  of  warlike  genius  which  have  given  him  the  first 
rank  among  Britain's  soldiers,  that  he  could  seldom  construct  a  con- 
nected argument  in  favor  of  his  plans,  and  generally  had  but  one 
answer  to  all  the  objections  which  might  be  urged  against  them,  and 
that  was  usually  repeated  in  the  same  words, — "Silly,  silly,  that's 
silly."  A  like  remark  is  applicable  Fo  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  several 
other  men  distinguished  for  prompt  and  energetic  action.  The  mental 
habits  best  adapted  for  effect  in  the  actual  business  of  life  are  not 
always  the  mental  habits  best  suited  to  the  teacher;  and  the  Teach- 
ers' Seminary  requires  a  mode  of  instruction  in  some  respects  different 
from  the  practical  school. 

The  teacher,  also,  must  review  the  branches  of  instruction  above 
enumerated  with  reference  to  their  scientific  connections,  and  a  thor- 
ough demonstration  of  them,  which,  though  not  always  necessary  In 
respect  to  their  practical  application  to  the  actual  business  of  life,  is 
absolutely  essential  to  that  ready  command  which  a  teacher  must 
have  over  them  in  order  to  put  them  into  the  minds  of  others. 

Nor  is  this  all.  There  is  a  great  variety  of  methods  for  inculcating 
the  same  truth;  and  the  diversities  of  mind  are  quite  as  numerous 
as  the  varieties  of  method.  One  mind  can  be  best  approached  by  one 
method,  and  another  mind  by  another;  and  in  respect  to  the  teacher, 
one  of  the  richest  treasures  of  experience  is  a  knowledge  of  the 
adaptation  of  the  different  methods  to  different  minds.  These  rich 
treasures  of  experience  can  be  preserved,  and  classified,  and  imparted 
in  the  Teachers'  Seminary.  If  the  teacher  never  studies  his  profes- 
sion, he  learns  this  part  of  his  duties  only  by  the  slow  and  wasteful 
process  of  experimenting  on  mind,  and  thus,  in  all  probability,  ruins 
many  before  he  learns  how  to  deal  with  them.  Could  we  ascertain 
how  many  minds  have  been  lost  to  the  world  in  consequence  of  the 
injudicious  measures  of  inexperienced  and  incompetent  teachers;  if 
we  could  exhibit,  in  a  statistical  table,  the  number  of  souls  which 
must  be  used  up  in  qualifying  a  teacher  for  his  profession,  by  intrust- 
ing him  with  its  active  duties  without  previous  study,  we  could  prove 
incontrovertibly  that  it  is  great  want  of  economy,  that  it  is  a  most 
prodigious  waste,  to  attempt  to  carry  on  a  system  of  schools  without 
making  provision  for  the  education  of  teachers. 

2.  The  philosophy  of  mind,  particularly  in  reference  to  its  suscepti- 
bility of  receiving  impressions  from  mind. 

The  teacher  should  learn,  at  least,  not  to  spoil  by  his  awkward 
handling  what  Nature  has  made  well ;  he  should  know  how  to  preserve 
the  intellectual  and  moral  powers  in  a  healthful  condition,  if  he  be 
not  capable  of  improving  them.  But,  through  ignorance  of  the  nature 
of  mind,  and  its  susceptibilities,  how  often  are  a  teacher's  most  in- 
dustrious efforts  worse  than  thrown  away — perverting  and  destroying 
rather  than  improving!  Frequently,  also,  the  good  which  is  gained 
by  judicious  efforts  in  one  direction  is  counteracted  by  a  mistaken 
course  in  another. 

Under  this  head  there  should  be  a  complete  classification  of  the 
sources  of  influence,  a  close  analysis  of  the  peculiar  nature  and  causes 
of  each,  and  of  its  applicability  to  educational  purposes.  There  should 
be  also  a  classification  of  the  errors  liable  to  be  committed,  with  a 
similar  analysis,  and  directions  for  avoiding  them.  It  appears  to  me 


8TOWE  ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  131 

that  there  are  some  valuable  discoveries  yet  to  be  made  in  this  branch 
of  knowledge;  and  that,  for  the  purposes  of  education,  the  powers  of 
the  mind  are  susceptible  of  a  classification  much  better  than  that 
which  has  hitherto  generally  been  adopted. 

3.  The  peculiarities  of  intellectual  and  moral  development  in  chil- 
dren, as  modified  by  sex,  parental  character,  wealth  or  poverty,  city 
or  country,  family  government,  indulgent  or  severe,  fickle  or  steady, 
&c. 

These  diversities  all  exist  in  every  community,  and  exert  a  most 
important  influence  on  the  developments  of  children;  and  no  teacher 
can  discharge  his  duties  diligently  and  thoroughly  without  recognizing 
this  extensive  class  of  influences.  The  influence  of  sex  is  one  of  the 
most  obvious,  and  no  successful  teacher,  I  believe,  ever  manages  the 
boys  and  the  girls  of  his  school  in  precisely  the  same  manner.  But 
the  other  sources  of  influence  are  no  less  important.  Parental  char- 
acter is  one.  Parents  of  high-minded  and  honorable  feeling,  will  be 
likely  to  impart  something  of  the  same  spirit  to  their  children.  Such 
children  may  be  easily  governed  by  appeals  to  their  sense  of  character, 
and  perhaps  ruined  by  the  application  of  the  rod.  If  parents  are 
mean-spirited  and  selfish,  great  allowance  should  be  made  for  the 
failings  of  their  children,  and  double  diligence  employed  to  cultivate 
in  them  a  sense  of  honor. 

The  different  circumstances  of  wealth  and  poverty  produce  great 
differences  in  children.  The  rich  child  generally  requires  restraint, 
the  poor  one  encouragement.  When  the  poor  are  brought  in  contact 
with  the  rich,  it  is  natural  that  the  former  should  feel  somewhat 
sensitive  as  to  the  distinctions  which  may  obtain  between  them  and 
their  fellows;  and  in  such  cases  special  pains  should  be  taken  to 
shield  the  sensibilities  of  the  poor  child  against  needless  wounds,  and 
make  him  feel  that  the  poverty  for  which  he  is  no  way  blamable  is 
not  to  him  a  degradation.  Otherwise  he  may  become  envious  and 
misanthropic,  or  be  discouraged  and  unmanned.  But  how  often  does 
the  reverse  of  this  take  place,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  character 
both  of  the  poor  and  the  rich!  Surely  it  is  misfortune  enough  to  the 
suffering  child  that  he  has  to  bear  the  ills  arising  from  ignorance  or 
negligence,  vice  or  poverty,  in  his  parents;  and  the  school  should  be 
a  refuge  for  him,  where  he  can  improve  himself  and  be  happy. 

Again,  city  and  country  produce  diversities  in  children  almost  as 
great  as  the  difference  of  sex.  City  children  are  inclined  to  the  ardent, 
quick,  glowing  temperament  of  the  female;  country  children  lean  more 
to  the  cooler,  steadier,  slower  development  of  the  male.  City  children 
are  more  excitable;  by  the  circumstances  in  which  they  are  placed, 
their  feelings  are  kept  in  more  constant  and  rapid  motion,  they  are 
more  easily  moved  to  good,  and  have  stronger  temptation  to  evil; 
while  country  children,  less  excitable,  less  rapid  in  their  advances 
toward  either  good  or  evil,  present,  in  their  peculiarities,  a  broad  and 
solid  foundation  for  characters  of  stable  structure  and  enduring  use- 
fulness. Though  human  nature  is  every  where  the  same,  and  schools 
present  the  same  general  characteristics;  yet  the  good  country  teacher, 
if  he  remove  to  the  city,  and  would  be  equally  successful  there,  will 
find  it  necessary  to  adopt  several  modifications  of  his  former  ar- 
rangements. 

Many  other  circumstances  give  rise  to  diversities  no  less  important. 
It  is  the  business  of  the  Teachers'  Seminary  to  arrange  and  classify 
these  modifying  influences,  and  give  to  the  pupil  the  advantages  of  an 
anticipated  experience  in  respect  to  his  method  of  proceeding  in  re- 
gard to  them.  No  one  will  imagine  that  the  teacher  is  to  let  his 


132  STOWE   ON   NORMAJL    SCHOOLS. 

pupils  see  that  he  recognizes  such  differences  among  them;  he  should 
be  wise  enough  to  keep  his  own  counsel,  and  deal  with  each  individual 
in  such  manner  as  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  each  may  render 
most  productive  of  good. 

4.  The  science  of  education  in  general,  and  full  illustration  of  the 
difference  between  education  and  mere  instruction. 

Science,  in  the  modern  acceptation  of  the  term,  is  a  philosophical 
classification  and  arrangement  of  all  the  facts  which  are  observed  in 
respect  to  any  subject,  and  an  investigation  from  these  facts  of  the 
principles  which  regulate  their  occurrence.  Education  affords  its  facts, 
and  they  are  as  numerous  and  as  deeply  interesting  as  the  facts  of 
any  other  science;  these  facts  are  susceptible  of  as  philosophical  a 
classification  and  arrangement  as  the  facts  of  chemistry  or  astronomy; 
and  the  principles  which  regulate  their  occurrence  are  as  appropriate 
and  profitable  a  subject  of  investigation  as  the  principles  of  botany 
or  zoology,  or  of  politics  or  morals.  I  know  it  has  been  said  by  some, 
that  education  is  not  a  science,  and  cannot  be  reduced  to  scientific 
principles;  but  they  who  talk  thus  either  ma"ke  use  of  words  without 
attaching  to  them  any  definite  meaning,  or  they  confound  the  idea  of 
education  with  that  of  the  mere  art  of  teaching.  Even  in  this  sense 
the  statement  is  altogether  erroneous,  as  will  be  shown  under  the 
next  head. 

The  teacher  should  be  acquainted  with  these  facts,  with  their  classi- 
fication, their  arrangement  and  principles,  before  he  enters  on  the 
duties  of  his  profession;  or  he  is  like  the  surgeon  who  would  operate 
on  the  human  body  before  he  has  studied  anatomy,  or  the  attorney 
who  would  commence  practice  before  he  has  made  himself  acquainted 
with  the  first  principles  of  law. 

It  is  a  common  error  to  confound  education  with  mere  instruction; 
an  error  so  common,  indeed,  that  many  writers  on  the  subject  use 
the  words  as  nearly,  if  not  entirely,  synonymous.  Instruction,  how- 
ever, comprehends  but  a  very  small  part  of  the  general  idea  of  educa- 
tion. Education  includes  all  the  extraneous  influences  which  com- 
bine to  the  formation  of  intellectual  and  moral  character;  while  in- 
struction is  limited  to  that  which  is  directly  communicated  from  one 
mind  to  another.  "Education  and  instruction  (says  Hooker)  are  the 
means,  the  one  by  use,  the  other  by  precept,  to  make  our  natural 
faculty  of  reason  both  the  better  and  the  sooner  to  judge  rightly  be- 
tween truth  and  error,  good  and  evil."  A  man  may  become  well 
educated,  though  but  poorly  instructed,  as  was  the  case  with  Pascal 
and  Franklin,  and  many  others  equally  illustrious;  but  if  a  man  is  well 
instructed,  he  cannot,  without  some  great  fault  of  his  own,  fail  to 
acquire  a  good  education.  Instruction  is  mostly  the  work  of  others; 
education  depends  mainly  on  the  use  which  we  ourselves  make  of  the 
circumstances  by  which  we  are  surrounded.  The  mischiefs  of  defec- 
tive instruction  may  often  be  repaired  by  our  own  subsequent  efforts; 
but  a  gap  left  down  in  the  line  of  our  education  is  not  so  easily  put 
up,  after  the  opportunity  has  once  passed  by. 

5.  The  art  of  teaching. 

The  art  of  teaching,  it  is  true,  is  not  a  science,  and  cannot  be  learned 
by  theoretic  study  alone,  without  practice.  The  model-school  is  ap- 
propriately the  place  for  the  acquisition  of  this  art  by  actual  practice; 
but,  like  all  the  rational  arts,  it  rests  on  scientific  principles.  The 
theoretical  instruction,  therefore,  in  this  branch,  will  be  limited  mainly 
to  a  development  of  the  principles  on  which  it  is  founded;  while  the 
application  of  those  principles  will  be  illustrated,  and  the  art  of 
teaching  acquired,  by  instructing  in  the  model-school  under  the  care 


8TOWE  ON   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  133 

of  the  professors,  and  subject  to  their  direction,  and  remarks.  The 
professor  assigns  to  the  pupil  his  class  in  the  model-school,  he  ob- 
serves his  manner  of  teaching,  and  notices  its  excellences  and  defects; 
and  after  the  class  is  dismissed,  and  the  student  is  with  him  alone, 
or  in  company  only  with  his  fellow-students,  he  commends  what  he 
did  well,  shows  him  how  he  might  have  made  the  imperfect  better, 
and  the  erroneous  correct,  pointing  out,  as  he  proceeds,  the  applica- 
tion of  theoretic  principles  to  practice,  that  the  lessons  in  the  model- 
school  may  be  really  an  illustration  of  all  that  has  been  taught  in  the 
Teachers'  Seminary. 

6.  The  art  of  governing  children,  with  special  reference  to  the  im- 
parting and  keeping  alive  of  a  feeling  of  love  for  children. 

Children  can  be  properly  governed  only  by  affection;  and  affection, 
rightly  directed,  is  all-powerful  for  this  purpose.  A  school  governed 
without  love  is  a  gloomy,  mind-killing  place;  it  is  like  a  nursery  of 
tender  blossoms  filled  with  an  atmosphere  of  frost  and  ice.  Affection 
is  the  natural  magnet  of  the  mind  in  childhood;  the  child's  mind  is 
fitted  by  its  Creator  to  be  moved  by  a  mother's  love;  and  cold  in- 
difference or  stern  lovelessness  repels  and  freezes  it.  In  governing 
children  there  is  no  substitute  for  affection,  and  God  never  intended 
there  should  be  any. 

General  rules  cannot  be  given  for  the  government  of  a  school;  the 
results  of  experience  can  be  treasured  up,  systematized,  and  imparted; 
the  candidate  for  the  teacher's  office  can  be  exercised  to  close  ob- 
servation, patience,  and  self-control;  and  all  these  are  essential 
branches  of  instruction  in  the  art  of  governing.  Still,  if  there  be  no 
feeling  of  love  for  children,  all  this  will  not  make  a  good  school- 
governor.  There  is  great  natural  diversity  in  individuals  in  regard 
to  this,  as  in  all  other  affections;  yet  every  one  whom  God  has  fitted 
to  be  a  parent  has  the  elements  of  this  affection,  and  these  elements 
are  susceptible  of  development  and  improvement. 

7.  History  of  education,  including  an  accurate  outline  of  the  educa- 
tional systems  of  different  ages  and  nations;  the  circumstances  which 
gave  rise  to  them;   the  principles  on  which  they  were  founded;   the 
ends  which  they  aimed  to  accomplish;   their  successes  and  failures, 
their  permanency  and  changes;  how  far  they  influenced  individual  and 
national  character;   how  far  any  of  them  might  have  originated  in 
premeditated  plan  on  the  part  of  their  founders;  whether  they  secured 
the   intelligence,  virtue,  and   happiness   of  the  people,   or  otherwise, 
with  the  causes,  &c. 

To  insure  success  in  any  pursuit,  the  experience  of  our  predecessors 
is  justly  considered  a  valuable,  and  generally  an  indispensable  aid. 
What  should  we  think  of  one  who  claimed  to  be  a  profound  politician 
while  ignorant  of  the  history  of  political  science;  while  unacquainted 
with  the  origin  of  governments,  the  causes  which  have  modified  their 
forms  and  influences,  the  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  them, 
the  different  effects  produced  by  various  systems  under  diverse  in- 
fluences, and  of  the  thousand  combinations  in  which  the  past  treasures 
wisdom  for  the  future?  What  should  we  think  of  the  lawyer  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  history  of  law?  or  the  astronomer,  ignorant  of 
the  history  of  astronomy?  In  every  science  and  every  art  we  recog- 
nize the  value  of  its  appropriate  history;  and  there  is  not  a  single 
circumstance  that  gives  value  to  such  history,  which  does  not  apply, 
in  all  its  force,  to  the  history  of  education.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  the 
history  of  education  is  entirely  neglected  among  us;  there  is  not  a 
work  devoted  to  the  subject  in  the  English  language;  and  very  few, 
indeed,  which  contain  even  notices  or  hints  to  guide  one's  inquiries 


134  STOWE   ON   NORMAL   SCHOOLS. 

on  this  deeply  interesting  theme.  I  wish  some  of  those  writers  who 
complain  that  education  is  a  hackneyed  subject,  a  subject  so  often 
and  so  much  discussed,  that  nothing  new  remains  to  be  said  upon  it, 
would  turn  their  inquiries  in  this  direction,  and  I  think  they  will  find 
much,  and  that  too  of  the  highest  utility,  which  will  be  entirely  new 
to  the  greater  part  even  of  the  reading  population. 

Man  has  been  an  educator  ever  since  he  became  civilized.  A  great 
variety  of  systems  of  public  instruction  have  been  adopted  and  sus- 
tained by  law,  which  have  produced  powerful  and  enduring  influences; 
and  are  we  to  set  sail  on  this  boundless  ocean  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
courses,  and  soundings,  and  discoveries  of  our  predecessors? 

The  Hebrew  nation,  in  its  very  origin,  was  subjected  to  a  premedi- 
tated and  thoroughly  systemized  course  of  national  instruction,  which 
produced  the  most  wonderful  influence,  and  laid  the  foundation  for 
that  peculiar  hardihood  and  determinateness  of  character,  which  have 
made  them  the  astonishment  of  all  ages,  a  miracle  among  nations. 
A  full  development  of  this  system,  and  a  careful  illustration  of  the 
particulars  which  gave  it  its  peculiar  strength,  and  of  the  circum- 
stances which  perverted  it  from  good  to  evil,  which  turned  strength 
into  the  force  of  hate,  and  perseverance  into  obstinacy,  would  be  a 
most  valuable  contribution  to  the  science  of  general  education.  The 
ancient  Persians  and  Hindoos  had  ingenious  and  thoroughly  digested 
systems  of  public  instruction,  entirely  diverse  from  each  other,  yet 
each  wonderfully  efficacious  in  its  own  peculiar  way.  The  Greeks 
were  a  busily  educating  people,  and  great  varieties  of  systems  sprung 
up  in  their  different  states  and  under  their  different  masters,  all  of 
them  ingenious,  most  of  them  effective,  and  some  of  them  character- 
ized by  the  highest  excellences.  Systems  which  we  cannot  and  ought 
not  to  imitate,  may  be  highly  useful  as  warnings,  and  to  prevent  our 
trying  experiments  which  have  been  often  tried  before,  and  failed  to 
be  useful.  The  Chinese,  for  example,  have  had  for  ages  a  system 
which  is  peculiarly  and  strictly  national;  its  object  has  always  been 
to  make  them  Chinese,  and  nothing  else;  it  has  fully  answered  the 
purpose  intended;  and  what  has  been  the  result?*  A  nation  of  ma- 
chines, a  people  of  patterns,  made  to  order;  a  set  of  men  and  women 
wound  up  like  clocks,  to  go  in  a  certain  way,  and  for  a  certain  time, 
with  minds  wonderfully  nice  and  exact  in  certain  little  things;  but 
as  stiff,  as  unsusceptible  of  expansion,  as  incapable  of  originating 
thought,  or  deviating  from  the  beaten  track,  as  one  of  their  own 
graven  images  is  of  navigating  a  ship.  In  short,  they  are  very  much 
such  a  people  as  the  Americans  might  become  in  a  few  centuries,  if 
some  amiable  enthusiasts  could  succeed  in  establishing  what  they  are 
pleased  to  denominate  a  system  exclusively  American.  Education,  to 
be  useful,  must  be  expansive,  must  be  universal;  the  mind  must  not 
be  trained  to  run  in  one  narrow  channel;  it  must  understand  that 
human  beings  have  thought,  and  felt,  and  acted,  in  other  countries 
than  its  own;  that  the  results  of  preceding  efforts  have  their  value, 
and  that  all  light  is  not  confined  to  its  own  little  Goshen. 

When  a  science  has  become  fixed  as  to  its  principles,  when  its 
facts  are  ascertained  and  well  settled,  then  its  history  is  generally 
written.  Why,  then,  have  we  no  history  of  education  in  our  language? 
Simply,  because  the  science  of  education,  with  us,  is  yet  in  its  infancy; 
because,  so  far  from  being  a  hackneyed  or  an  exhausted  subject,  on 
which  nothing  new  remains  to  be  said,  its  fundamental  principles  are 
not  yet  so  ascertained  as  to  become  the  basis  of  a  fixed  science.  It 
cannot  be  pretended  that  there  are  no  materials  for  the  composition 

*  See  Note  A,  at  the  close  of  this  article. 


STOWE   ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  135 

of  such  a  history.  We  are  not  destitute  of  information  respecting 
the  educational  systems  of  the  most  ancient  nations,  as  the  Chal- 
deans, Assyrians,  Egyptians,  and  Carthaginians;  and  in  respect  to  the 
Hindoos,  the  Persians,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Chinese,  the 
modern  Europeans,  the  materials  for  their  educational  history  are 
nearly  as  ample  as  those  for  their  civil  history;  and  the  former  is 
quite  as  important  to  the  educator  as  the  latter  is  to  the  civilian.  The 
brief  and  imperfect,  but  highly  interesting  sketches,  given  by  Sharon 
Turner  in  his  History  of  England,  afford  sufficient  proof  of  my  asser- 
tion; and  they  are  to  a  full  history  of  English  education,  as  the  first 
streaks  of  dawn  to  the  risen  sun.  Should  Teachers'  Seminaries  do 
nothing  else  than  excite  a  taste  and  afford  the  materials  for  the 
successful  pursuit  of  this  branch  of  study  only,  they  would  more  than 
repay  all  the  cost  of  their  establishment  and  maintenance.  Systems 
of  education  which  formed  and  trained  such  minds  as  arose  in  Egypt, 
in  Judea,  in  Greece — systems  under  whose  influence  such  men  as 
Moses  and  Isaiah,  Solon,  and  Plato,  and  Paul,  received  those  first 
impressions  which  had  such  commanding  power  over  their  mighty 
Intellects,  may  afford  to  us  many  valuable  suggestions.  The  several 
topics  to  which  I  have  above  alluded,  as  particularly  worthy  of  notice 
in  a  history  of  those  systems,  are  too  obviously  important  to  require  a 
separate  illustration. 

8.  The  rules  of  health  and  the  laws  of  physical  development. 

The  care  of  the  body  while  we  are  in  this  world  is  not  less  im- 
portant than  the  culture  of  the  mind;  for,  as  a  general  fact,  no  mind 
can  work  vigorously  in  a  feeble  and  comfortless  body;  and  when  the 
forecastle  of  a  vessel  sinks,  the  cabin  must  soon  follow.  The  edu- 
cating period  of  youth  is  the  time  most  critical  to  health;  and  the 
peculiar  excitements  and  temptations  of  a  course  of  study,  add  greatly 
to  the  natural  dangers  of  the  forming  and  developing  seasons  of  life. 
Teachers,  therefore,  especially,  should  understand  the  rules  of  health, 
and  the  laws  of  physical  development;  and  it  is  impossible  that  they 
should  understand  them,  unless  they  devote  some  time  to  their  study. 
What  a  ruinous  waste  of  comfort,  of  strength,  and  of  life,  has  there 
been  in  our  educational  establishments,  in  consequence  of  the  ignor- 
ance and  neglect  of  teachers  on  this  point!  And  how  seldom  is  this 
important  branch  of  study  ever  thought  of  as  a  necessary  qualification 
for  the  office  of  teacher! 

As  it  is  a  most  sacred  duty  of  the  teacher  to  preserve  uninjured 
the  powers  of  the  mind,  and  keep  them  in  a  healthful  condition,  so  it 
Is  no  less  his  duty  to  take  the  same  care  of  the  physical  powers.  The 
body  should  not  only  be  kept  in  health,  but  its  powers  should  be  de- 
veloped and  improved  with  as  much  care  as  is  devoted  to  the  im- 
provement of  the  mind,  that  all  the  capabilities  of  the  man  may  be 
brought  out  and  fitted  for  active  duty.  But  can  one  know  how  to  do 
this  if  he  never  learns?  And  will  he  be  likely  to  learn,  unless  he  has 
opportunity  of  learning?  It  is  generally  regarded  as  the  province  of 
teachers  to  finish  out  and  improve  on  Nature's  plan;  but  if  they  can 
all  be  brought  to  understand  their  profession  so  well  as  not  to  mar 
and  spoil  what  Nature  made  right,  it  will  be  a  great  improvement  on 
the  present  condition  of  education  in  the  world. 

9.  Dignity  and  importance  of  the  teacher's  office. 

Self-respect,  and  a  consciousness  of  doing  well,  are  essential  to 
comfort  and  success  in  any  honorable  calling;  especially  in  one  subject 
to  so  many  external  depressions,  one  so  little  esteemed  and  so  poorly 
rewarded  by  the  world  at  large,  as  that  of  the  teacher.  No  station  of 
so  great  importance  has  probably  ever  been  so  slightly  estimated; 


136  STOAVE   ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS. 

and  the  fault  has  been  partly  in  the  members  of  the  profession  itself. 
They  have  not  estimated  their  official  importance  sufficiently  high; 
they  have  given  a  tacit  assent  to  the  superficial  judgment  of  the 
world;  they  have  hung  loosely  on  the  profession,  and  too  often  aban- 
doned it  the  first  opportunity.  They  ought  early  to  understand  that 
their  profession  demands  the  strongest  efforts  of  their  whole  lives; 
that  no  employment  can  be  more  intimately  connected  with  the  prog- 
ress and  general  welfare  of  society;  that  the  best  hopes  and  tenderest 
wishes  of  parents  and  of  nations  depend  on  their  skill  and  fidelity; 
and  that  an  incompetent  or  unworthy  discharge  of  the  duties  of  their 
office  brings  the  community  into  the  condition  of  an  embattled  host 
when  the  standard-bearer  faileth.  If  teachers  themselves  generally 
had  a  clear  and  definite  conception  of  the  immensely  responsible  place 
they  occupy;  if  they  were  skilled  in  the  art  of  laying  these  concep- 
tions vividly  before  the  minds  of  the  people  among  whom  they  labor, 
it  would  produce  a  great  influence  on  the  profession  itself,  by  bring- 
ing it  under  the  pressure  of  a  mightier  motive,  and  cause  all  classes 
of  people  more  clearly  to  understand  the  inestimable  worth  of  the 
good  teacher,  and  make  them  more  willing  to  honor  and  reward  him. 
And  this,  too,  would  be  the  surest  method  of  ridding  the  profession 
of  such  incumbents  as  are  a  disgrace  to  it,  and  an  obstacle  to  its 
elevation  and  improvement.  Julius  Caesar  was  the  first  of  the  Romans 
who  honored  school-teachers  by  raising  them  to  the  rank  of  Roman 
citizens,  and  in  no  act  of  his  life  did  he  more  clearly  manifest  that 
peculiar  sagacity  for  which  he  was  distinguished. 

10.  Special  religious  obligations  of  teachers  in  respect  to  benevolent 
devotedness  to  the  intellectual  and  moral  welfare  of  society,  habits 
of  entire  self-control,  purity  of  mind,  elevation  of  character,  &c. 

The  duties  of  the  teacher  are  scarcely  less  sacred  or  less  delicate 
than  those  of  the  minister  of  religion.  In  several  important  respects 
he  stands  in  a  similar  relation  to  society;  and  his  motives  and  en- 
couragements to  effort  must,  to  a  considerable  extent,  be  of  the  same 
class.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  teaching  will  ever  become  gener- 
ally a  lucrative  profession,  or  that  many  will  enter  it  for  mere  love 
of  money,  or  that,  if  any  should  enter  it  from  such  a  motive,  they 
would  ever  be  very  useful  in  it.  All  teachers  ought  to  have  a  com- 
fortable support,  and  a  competency  for  the  time  of  sickness  and  old 
age;  but  what  ought  to  be  and  what  is,  in  such  a  world  as  this,  are 
often  very  different  things.  If  a  competency  is  gained  by  teaching, 
very  few  will  ever  expect  to  grow  rich  by  it.  Higher  motives  than 
the  love  of  wealth  must  actuate  the  teacher  in  the  choice  of  his 
profession,  and  animate  him  in  the  performance  of  its  laborious  duties. 
Such  motives  as  the  love  of  doing  good,  and  peculiar  affection  for 
children,  do  exist  in  many  minds,  notwithstanding  the  general  selfish- 
ness of  the  world;  and  these  emotions,  by  a  proper  kind  of  culture, 
are  susceptible  of  increase,  till  they  become  the  predominant  and 
leading  desires.  The  teacher  who  has  little  benevolence,  and  little 
love  for  children,  must  be  a  miserable  being,  as  well  as  a  very  poor 
teacher;  but  one  who  has  these  propensities  strongly  developed,  and 
is  not  ambitious  of  distinction  in  the  world  of  vanity  and  noise,  but 
seeks  his  happiness  in  doing  good,  is  among  the  happiest  of  men; 
and  some  of  the  most  remarkable  instances  of  healthy  and  cheerful 
old  age  are  found  among  school-teachers.  As  examples,  I  would 
mention  old  Ezekiel  Cheever,  who  taught  school  in  New  England  for 
seventy-one  years  without  interruption,  and  died  in  Boston  in  the  year 
1708,  at  the  advanced  age  of  ninety-three;  or  Dr.  G.  F.  Dinter,  now 
living  at  Konigsberg  in  Prussia,  in  the  eightieth  year  of  his  age.  In- 
deed, the  ingenious  author  of  Hermippus  Redivivus  affirms,  that  the 


8TOWE  ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  137 

breath  of  beloved  children  preserves  the  benevolent  schoolmaster's 
health,  as  salt  keeps  flesh  from  putrefaction.  In  Prussia,  school- 
teachers generally  enter  on  their  profession  at  the  age  of  twenty-two 
or  twenty-five,  and  the  average  term  of  service  among  the  lorty  thou- 
sand teachers  there  employed  is  over  thirty  years,  making  the  average 
duration  of  a  teacher's  life  there  nearly  sixty  years ;  a  greater  longevity 
than  can  be  found  in  any  profession  in  the  United  States.  Many 
teachers  continue  in  the  active  discharge  of  their  official  duties  more 
than  fifty  years;  and  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  their  induction  to 
office  is  celebrated  by  a  festival,  and  honored  by  a  present  from 
government. 

The  other  qualities  mentioned,  self-control,  purity  of  mind,  elevation 
of  character,  are  so  obviously  essential  to  a  teacher's  usefulness,  that 
they  require  no  comment.  We  need  only  remark,  that  these  are  moral 
qualities,  and  can  be  cultivated  only  by  moral  means;  that  they  are 
religious  qualities,  and  must  be  excited  and  kept  alive  by  religious 
motives.  Will  any  one  here  raise  the  cry,  Sectarianism,  Church  and 
State  f  I  pity  the  poor  bigot,  or  the  narrow-souled  unbeliever,  who 
can  form  no  idea  of  religious  principle,  except  as  a  sectarian  thing; 
who  is  himself  so  utterly  unsusceptible  of  ennobling  emotions,  that 
he  cannot  even  conceive  it  possible  that  any  man  should  have  a  prin- 
ciple of  virtue  and  piety  superior  to  all  external  forms,  and  untram- 
meled  by  metaphysical  systems.  From  the  aid  of  such  men,  we  have 
nothing  to  hope  in  the  cause  of  sound  education;  and  their  hostility 
we  may  as  well  encounter  in  one  form  as  another,  provided  we  make 
sure  of  the  ground  on  which  we  stand,  and  hold  up  the  right  principles 
in  the  right  shape. 

11.  The  influence  which  the  school  should  exert  on  civilization  and 
the  progress  of  society. 

It  requires  no  great  sagacity  to  perceive  that  the  school  is  one  of 
the  most  important  parts  of  the  social  machine,  especially  in  modern 
times,  when  it  is  fast  acquiring  for  itself  the  influence  which  was 
wielded  by  the  pulpit  some  two  centuries  ago,  and  which,  at  a  more 
recent  period,  has  been  obtained  by  the  periodical  press.  As  the 
community  becomes  separated  into  sects,  which  bigotry  and  intoler- 
ance force  into  subdivisions  still  more  minute,  the  influence  of  the 
pulpit  is  gradually  circumscribed;  but  no  such  causes  limit  the  in- 
fluence of  the  school.  Teachers  need  only  understand  the  position 
they  occupy,  and  act  in  concert,  to  make  the  school  the  most  effective 
element  of  modern  civilization,  not  excepting  even  the  periodical 
press.  A  source  of  influence  so  immense,  and  which  draws  so  deeply 
on  the  destinies  of  man,  ought  to  be  thoroughly  investigated  and 
considered,  especially  by  those  who  make  teaching  their  profession. 
Yet  I  know  not,  in  the  whole  compass  of  English  literature,  a  single 
work  on  the  subject,  notwithstanding  that  education  is  so  worn  out  a 
theme,  that  nobody  can  say  any  thing  new  upon  it. 

12.  The  elements  of  Latin,  together  with  the  German,  French,  and 
Spanish  languages. 

The  languages  of  Europe  have  received  most  of  their  refinement 
and  their  science  through  the  medium  of  the  Latin;  and  so  largely  are 
they  indebted  to  this  tongue,  that  the  elements  of  it  are  necessary  as  a 
foundation  for  their  study  of  the  modern  languages.  That  the  German 
should  be  understood  by  teachers,  especially  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and 
the  Western  States  generally,  is  obvious  from  the  fact,  that  more  than 
half  the  school  districts  contain  German  parents  and  children,  who  are 
best  approached  through  the  medium  of  their  own  tongue;  and  the  rich 
abundance  and  variety  of  educational  literature  in  this  language; 


138  STOWE   ON    NOKMAL    SCHOOLS. 

greater,  I  venture  to  say  than  in  all  other  languages  together,  render 
it  an  acquisition  of  the  highest  importance  to  every  teacher.  In  the 
present  state  of  the  commercial  world  one  cannot  be  said  to  have  ac- 
quired a  business  education  without  a  knowledge  of  French;  while  our 
intimate  relations  with  Mexico  and  South  America  render  the  Spanish 
valuable  to  us,  and,  indeed,  in  the  Western  country,  almost  indispen- 
sable. The  mental  discipline  which  the  study  of  these  languages  gives 
is  of  the  most  valuable  kind,  and  the  collateral  information  acquired 
while  learning  them  is  highly  useful.  Though  a  foreign  tongue  is  a  dif- 
ficult acquisition  for  an  adult,  it  is  very  easy  for  a  cihld.  In  the  Rhine 
provinces  of  Germany,  almost  every  child  learns,  without  effort,  both 
German  and  French,  and,  in  the  commercial  cities,  English  also;  and 
the  unschooled  children  of  the  Levant  often  learn  four  or  five  different 
languages  merely  by  the  ear.  I  do  not  suppose  that  the  modern  lang- 
uages will  soon  become  a  regular  branch  of  study  in  all  our  common 
schools;  still,  many  who  depend  on  those  schools  for  their  education, 
desire  to  study  one  or  more  of  them,  and  they  ought  to  have  the  op- 
portunity; and  if  we  would  make  our  common  schools  our  best  schools, 
as  they  surely  ought  to  be,  the  teachers  must  be  capable  of  giving  in- 
struction in  some  of  these  languages. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  give  a  brief  view  of  the  course  of  study 
which  should  be  pursued  in  a  Teachers'  Seminary,  and  this,  I  suppose, 
in  itself,  affords  a  strong  and  complete  argument  to  establish  the  ne- 
cessity of  such  an  institution.  A  few  general  considerations  in  favor 
of  this  object  will  now  be  adduced. 

1.  The  necessity  of  specific  provision  for  the  education  of  teachers  is 
proved  by  the  analogy  of  all  other  professions  and  pursuits. 

To  every  sort  of  business  in  which  men  engage,  some  previous  dis- 
cipline is  considered  necessary;  and  this  idea,  confirmed  by  all  exper- 
ience, proceeds  on  the  universal  and  very  correct  assumption,  that  the 
human  mind  knows  nothing  of  business  by  intuition,  and  that  miracu- 
lous inspiration  is  not  to  be  expected.  A  man  is  not  thought  capable  of 
shoeing  a  horse,  or  making  a  hat,  without  serving  an  apprenticeship  at 
the  business.  Why,  then,  should  the  task  of  the  schoolmaster,  the  most 
difficult  and  delicate  of  all,  the  management  of  the  human  mind,  that 
most  intricate  and  complex  of  machines,  be  left  to  mere  intuition,  be 
supposed  to  require  no  previous  training?  That  the  profession  of  school- 
teacher should  so  long  be  kept  so  low  in  the  scale  of  professions,  that 
it  should  even  now  be  so  generally  regarded  as  a  pursuit  which  needs, 
and  can  reward,  neither  time  nor  pains  spent  in  preparation  for  its 
important  duties,  is  a  plain  proof  and  example  of  the  extreme  slowness 
of  the  human  race  to  perfect  the  most  important  parts  of  the  social  sys- 
tem. 

2.  A  well-endowed,  competent,  and  central  institution,  in  a  State,  for 
the  education  of  teachers,  would  give,  in  that  State,  oneness,  dignity, 
and  influence  to  the  profession. 

It  would  be  a  point  of  union  that  would  hold  the  profession  together, 
and  promote  that  harmony  and  co-operation  so  essential  to  success. 
Teachers  have  been  isolated  and  scattered,  without  a  rallying-point  or 
rendezvous;  and  the  wonderful  influence  which  has  been  exerted  by 
the  Western  college  of  teachers  (and  other  similar  institutions  in  the 
Eastern  States),  the  whole  secret  of  which  is,  that  it  affords  a  central 
point  around  which  teachers  may  rally,  is  but  a  faint  shadow  of  what 
might  be  accomplished  by  a  well-endowed  and  ably-manned  seminary. 
Let  there  be  some  nucleus  around  which  the  strength  of  the  profession 
may  gather,  and  the  community  will  soon  feel  its  importance,  and  give 
it  its  due  honor. 

This  object  cannot  be  accomplished  by  small  institutions  scattered 
through  the  State,  nor  by  erecting  teachers'  departments  in  existing  in- 


8TOWE  ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  139 

stitutions.  The  aggregate  expense  of  such  an  arrangement  would  be 
quite  as  great  as  that  of  endowing  one  good  institution;  and  without 
such  an  institution  it  would,  after  all,  accomplish  but  very  little.  It 
would  be  like  distributing  the  waters  of  the  canal  to  every  little  village 
in  the  State,  instead  of  having  them  run  in  one  broad  and  deep  channel, 
suitable  for  navigation. 

3.  Such  an  institution  would  serve  as  a  standard  and  model  of  edu- 
cation throughout  the  community. 

The  only  reason  why  people  are  satisfied  with  an  inferior  system  of 
common-school  instruction  is,  that  they  have  no  experience  of  a  better. 
No  community  ever  goes  voluntarily  from  a  better  to  a  worse,  but  the 
tendency  and  the  effort  generally  are  to  rise  in  excellence.  All  our  ideas 
of  excellence,  however,  are  comparative,  and  there  will  be  little  pros- 
pect of  advancement  unless  we  have  a  standard  of  comparison  higher 
than  any  thing  to  which  we  have  already  attained. 

A  well-managed  institution  at  the  seat  of  government,  which  should 
embody  all  real  improvements,  and  hold  up  the  highest  standard  of 
present  attainment,  being  visited  by  the  executive  officers,  the  legisla- 
tors, the  judges,  the  members  of  the  bar,  and  other  enlightened  and 
influential  men,  who  annually  resort  to  the  capital  from  every  part  of 
the  State,  would  present  a  pattern  to  every  school  district,  and  excite 
emulation  in  every  neighborhood.  As  an  example  of  the  rapidity  with 
which  improvements  are  taken,  provided  only  there  are  appropriate 
channels  for  them  to  flow  in,  I  may  mention  the  practice  of  singing  in 
schools,  so  recently  introduced,  and  now  so  generally  approved. 

4.  Such  an  institution  would  produce  concentration  of  effort;  its  ac- 
tion would  possess  the  vigor  which  strong  sympathies  impart;  and  it 
would  tend  to  a  desirable  uniformity  in  books  and  modes  of  teaching. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  absolute  perfection  will  ever  be  attained  in  the 
art  of  teaching;  and  while  absolute  perfection  is  not  reached,  it  is  cer- 
tain there  ought  not  to  be  entire  uniformity  in  books  and  modes  of 
teaching.  But  in  this,  as  in  all  other  human  arts,  there  may  be  con- 
stant approximation  toward  the  perfect;  and  this  progress  must  be 
greatly  accelerated  by  the  concentration  of  effort,  and  the  powerful 
sympathetic  action  of  mind  on  mind,  collected  in  one  institution,  and 
determined,  as  it  were,  to  one  focus.  The  action  of  such  an  institution 
would  obviate  the  principal  evils,  now  so  strongly  felt,  arising  from 
the  diversity  of  books  and  methods;  it  would  produce  as  much  uni- 
formity as  would  be  desirable  in  the  existing  stage  of  improvement; 
and  the  more  advanced  the  progress,  the  greater  would  be  the  uni- 
formity. 

5.  All  experience   (experience  which  we  generally  appeal  to  as  the 
safest  guide  in  all  practical  matters)   has  decided  in  favor  of  institu- 
tions sustained  by  government  for  the  education  of  teachers. 

No  country  has  ever  yet  obtained  a  sufficient  number  of  well-quali- 
fied teachers  in  any  other  way;  while  every  government  which  has 
adopted  this  method,  and  vigorously  pursued  it,  either  has  already 
gained  the  object,  or  is  in  the  fair  way  of  gaining  it,  however  unprom- 
ising the  beginnings  might  have  been.  No  country  has  ever  been  so  well 
supplied  with  competent  teachers  as  Prussia  at  the  present  moment, 
and  yet,  thirty  years  ago,  the  mass  of  school-teachers  there  was  prob- 
ably below  the  present  average  standard  of  New  England  and  Ohio. 
Dinter  gives  several  examples  of  ignorance  and  incapacity  during  the 
first  years  of  his  official  labor  in  East  Prussia,  which  we  should  scarce- 
ly expect  to  find  any  where  in  the  United  States;  and  the  testimony  of 
Dr.  Julius  before  the  British  House  of  Commons,  which  was  published 
in  connection  with  my  last  report  to  the  Legislature  of  Ohio,  gives  a 


140  STOWE   ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS. 

similar  view  of  the  miserable  condition  of  the  Prussian  schools  at  that 
time. 

Now,  what  has  been  the  great  means  of  effecting  so  desirable  an  ob- 
ject in  Prussia?  Obviously,  and  by  universal  acknowledgement,  the  es- 
tablishment of  seminaries  for  the  education  of  teachers.*  The  experi- 
ment was  commenced  by  placing  one  in  each  of  the  ten  provinces  into 
which  the  kingdom  is  divided  (equivalent  to  having  one  in  each  of  the 
several  States  of  this  Union) ;  and  as  their  utility  was  tested,  their 
number  was  increased;  till  now  there  are  more  than  forty  for  a  popu- 
lation of  fourteen  millions.  Wirtemberg,  Bavaria,  Austria,  Russia,  Hol- 
land, France,  and  all  other  countries  which  desire  to  obtain  a  sufficient 
number  of  well-qualified  teachers,  find  it  necessary  to  follow  this  ex- 
ample; and  I  do  not  believe  the  United  States  are  an  exception  to  so 
general  a  rule.  Indeed,  such  institutions  must  be  even  more  necessary 
for  us  than  for  them,  since,  from  the  crowded  state  of  the  professions 
in  old  countries,  there  is  much  greater  competition  for  the  appointment 
of  schoolmaster  there  than  here. 

It  now  only  remains  that  I  state  a  few  of  the  more  prominent  objec- 
tions which  are  sometimes  made  to  these  institutions,  and  endeavor  to 
answer  them. 

1.  "Such  institutions  are  unnecessary.  We  have  had  good  teachers 
without  them,  and  may  have  good  teachers  still." 

This  is  the  old  stereotyped  objection  against  every  attempt  at  im- 
provement in  every  age.  When  the  bold  experiment  was  first  made  of 
nailing  iron  upon  a  horse's  hoof,  the  objection  was  probably  urged  that 
horseshoes  were  entirely  unnecessary.  "We  have  had  excellent  horses 
without  them,  and  shall  probably  continue  to  have  them.  The  Greeks 
and  Romans  never  used  iron  horseshoes:  and  did  they  not  have  the 
best  of  horses,  which  could  travel  thousands  of  miles,  and  bear  on 
their  backs  the  conquerors  of  the  world?"  So,  when  chimneys  and  glass 
windows  were  first  introduced,  the  same  objection  would  still  hold 
good.  "We  have  had  very  comfortable  houses  without  these  expensive 
additions.  Our  fathers  never  had  them,  and  why  should  we?"  And  at 
this  day,  if  we  were  to  attempt,  in  certain  parts  of  the  Scottish  High- 
lands, to  introduce  the  practice  of  wearing  pantaloons,  we  should  prob- 
ably be  met  with  the  same  objection.  "We  have  had  very  good  men 
without  pantaloons,  and  no  doubt  we  shall  continue  to  have  them."  In 
fact,  we  seldom  know  the  inconveniences  of  an  old  thing  till  we  have 
taken  a  new  and  better  one  in  its  stead.  It  is  scarcely  a  year  since  the 
New  York  and  European  sailing  packets  were  supposed  to  afford  the 
very  ne  plus  ultra  of  a  comfortable  and  speedy  passage  across  the  At 
lantic;  but  now,  in  comparison  with  the  newly-established  steam-pack- 
ets, they  are  justly  regarded  as  a  slow,  uncertain,  and  tedious  mode  of 
conveyance.  The  human  race  is  progressive,  and  it  often  happens  that 
the  greatest  conveniences  of  one  generation  are  reckoned  among  the 
clumsiest  waste  lumber  of  the  next.  Compare  the  best  printing-press  at 
which  Dr.  Franklin  ever  worked,  with  those  splendid  machines  which 
now  throw  off  their  thousand  sheets  an  hour;  and  who  will  put  these 
down  by  repeating,  that  Dr.  Franklin  was  a  very  good  printer,  and 
made  very  good  books,  and  became  quite  rich  without  them? 

I  know  that  we  have  good  teachers  already;  and  I  honor  the  men 
who  have  made  themselves  good  teachers,  with  so  little  encouragement, 
and  so  little  opportunity  of  study.  But  I  also  know  that  such  teachers 
are  very  few,  almost  none,  in  comparison  with  the  public  wants;  and 
that  a  supply  never  can  be  expected  without  the  increased  facilities 
which  a  good  Teachers'  Seminary  would  furnish. 

*  See  Notes  B  and  C,  at  the  close  of  this  article. 


8TOWE  ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  141 

2.  "Such  an  institution  would  be  very  expensive." 

True,  it  would  cost  more  than  it  would  to  build  a  stable,  or  fence  in 
a  few  acres  of  ground;  and  in  this  view  of  the  matter  a  canal  is  expen- 
sive, and  so  is  a  public  road,  and  many  other  things  which  the  public 
good  requires,  and  the  people  are  willing  to  pay  for.  The  only  questions 
worthy  of  answer  are:  Whether  the  expense  be  disproportionate  to  the 
object  to  be  secured  by  it?  and  whether  it  be  beyond  the  resources  of 
the  country?  To  both  these  questions  I  unhesitatingly  answer,  No.  The 
object  to  be  secured  is  one  which  would  fully  justify  any  amount  of 
expense  that  might  be  laid  out  upon  it;  and  all  that  need  be  done  might 
be  done,  and  not  a  man  in  the  State  feel  the  poorer  for  it.  We  could  not 
expect  a  perfect  institution  at  once.  We  must  begin  where  we  are,  and 
go  forward  by  degrees.  A  school  sufficient  for  all  present  purposes 
might  well  be  maintained  for  five  thousand  dollars  a  year;  and  what 
is  that  for  States  with  resources  like  most  of  the  States  of  this  Union, 
and  for  the  sake  of  securing  an  object  so  great  as  the  perfection  of  the 
school  system?  If  the  kingdom  of  Prussia,  with  fourteen  millions  of 
people,  two-thirds  of  whom  are  very  poor,  and  the  other  third  not  very 
rich,  can  support  forty-two  Teachers'  Seminaries,  surely  such  States  as 
Ohio,  and  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia,  and  others,  with  populations  of 
more  than  a  million,  none  of  whom  are  very  poor,  and  many  fast  grow- 
ing rich,  can  afford  to  support  one. 

3.  "We  cannot  be  certain  that  they  who  study  in  such  institutions 
would  devote  themselves  to  the  business  of  teaching." 

This  objection  applies  with  equal  force  to  all  professional  institu- 
tions; and  if  it  is  of  any  weight  against  a  Teachers'  Seminary,  it  is 
equally  available  against  a  medical  school.  The  objection,  however,  has 
very  little  weight;  for  after  a  man  has  prepared  himself  for  a  profes- 
sion, he  generally  wishes  to  engage  in  it,  if  he  is  competent  to  dis- 
charge its  duties;  and  if  he  is  not  competent,  the  public  are  no  losers 
by  his  withdrawal. 

But  let  it  even  be  supposed  that  a  Teachers'  Seminary  should  be  es- 
tablished on  the  plan  above  sketched  out,  and  occasionally  a  man 
should  go  successfully  through  the  prescribed  course  of  study,  and  not 
engage  in  teaching;  are  the  public  the  losers  by  it?  Is  the  man  a  worse 
member  of  society  after  such  a  course  of  study,  or  a  better?  Is  he  less 
interested  in  schools,  or  less  able  to  perform  the  duties  of  a  school  of- 
ficer, or  less  qualified  to  give  a  useful  direction  to  the  system  among 
the  people,  than  he  would  have  been  without  such  a  course  of  study? 
Is  he  not  manifestly  able  to  stand  on  higher  ground  in  all  these  re- 
spects, than  he  otherwise  could  have  done?  The  benefit  which  the  pub- 
lic would  derive  from  such  men  out  of  the  profession  (and  such  would 
be  useful  in  every  school  district)  would  amply  remunerate  all  the  ex- 
penses of  the  establishment.  But  such  cases  would  be  too  few  to  avail 
much  on  either  side  of  the  argument;  certainly,  in  any  view  of  them, 
they  can  argue  nothing  against  the  establishment  of  Teachers'  Sem- 
inaries. 

4.  "Teachers  educated  in  such  an  institution  would  exclude  all  others 
from  the  profession." 

Not  unless  the  institution  could  furnish  a  supply  for  all  the  schools, 
and  they  were  so  decidedly  superior  that  the  people  would  prefer  them 
to  all  others;  in  which  case  certainly  the  best  interests  of  education 
demand  that  the  statement  in  the  objection  should  be  verified  in  fact. 
But  the  success  of  the  institution  will  not  be  so  great  and  all-absorbing 
as  this.  It  will  not  be  able  at  once  to  supply  half  the  number  of  teach- 
ers needed,  and  all  who  are  educated  in  it  will  not  be  superior  to  every 
one  who  has  not  enjoyed  its  advantages.  There  is  great  diversity  of 
natural  gifts;  and  some,  with  very  slender  advantages,  will  be  superior 


142  STOWE   ON    NORMAL    SCHOOLS. 

to  others  who  have  been  in  possession  of  every  facility  for  acquisition. 
That  such  an  institution  will  elevate  the  standard  of  qualification 
among  teachers,  and  crowd  out  those  who  notoriously  fall  below  this 
standard,  is  indeed  true;  but  this,  so  far  from  being  an  objection,  is 
one  of  its  highest  recommendations. 

5.  "One  such  institution  cannot  afford  a  sufficient  supply  for  all  the 
schools." 

This  is  readily  conceded;  but  people  generally  admit  that  half  a  loaf 
is  better  than  no  bread,  especially  if  they  are  hungry.  If  we  have  a 
thousand  teachers,  it  is  much  better  that  three  hundred  of  the  number 
should  be  well  qualified,  than  that  all  should  be  incompetent;  and  five 
hundred  would  be  still  better  than  three  hundred,  and  seven  hundred 
better  than  either,  and  the  whole  thousand  best  of  all.  We  must  begin 
as  well  as  we  can,  and  go  forward  as  fast  as  we  are  able;  and  not  be  like 
the  poor  fool  who  will  not  move  at  all,  because  the  first  step  he  takes 
from  his  own  door  will  not  land  him  at  once  in  the  place  of  his  destina- 
tion. The  first  step  is  a  necessary  preliminary  to  the  second,  and  the  sec- 
ond to  the  third,  and  so  on  till  all  the  steps  are  taken,  and  the  journey 
completed.  The  educated  teacher  will  exert  a  reforming  influence  on 
those  who  have  not  been  so  well  prepared;  he  will  elevate  and  enlarge 
their  views  of  the  duties  of  the  profession,  and  greatly  assist  them  in 
their  endeavors  after  a  more  perfect  qualification.*  He  will  also  excite 
capable  young  men  among  his  pupils  to  engage  in  the  profession;  for 
one  of  the  greatest  excitements  of  the  young  to  engage  in  any  business, 
is  to  see  a  superior  whom  they  respect  in  the  successful  prosecution  of 
it. 

Every  well-educated  teacher  does  much  toward  qualifying  those  who 
are  already  in  the  profession  without  sufficient  preparation,  and  to- 
ward exciting  others  to  engage  in  it;  and  thus,  though  the  institution 
cannot  supply  nearly  teachers  enough  for  all  the  schools,  yet  all  the 
schools  will  be  better  taught  in  consequence  of  its  influence.  Moreover, 
a  State  institution  would  be  the  parent  of  many  others,  which  would 
gradually  arise,  as  their  necessity  would  be  appreciated  from  the  per- 
ceived success  of  the  first. 

6.  "The  wages  of  teachers  are  not  sufficient  to  induce  teachers  so 
well  educated  to  engage  in  the  profession." 

At  present  this  is  true;  for  wages  are  generally  graduated  accord- 
ing to  the  aggregate  merit  of  the  profession,  and  this,  hitherto,  has 
not  been  very  great.  People  will  not  pay  high  for  a  poor  article;  and  a 
disproportionate  quantity  of  poor  articles  in  market,  which  are  offered 
cheap,  will  affect  the  price  of  the  good,  with  the  generality  of  pur- 
chasers. But  let  the  good  be  supplied  in  such  quantities  as  to  make  the 
people  acquainted  with  it,  and  it  will  soon  drive  out  the  bad,  and 
command  its  own  price.  The  establishment  of  a  Teachers'  Seminary 
will  raise  the  wages  of  teachers,  by  increasing  their  qualifications,  and 
augmenting  the  real  value  of  their  services;  and  people  eventually  will 
pay  a  suitable  compensation  for  good  teaching,  with  much  less  grudg- 
ing than  they  have  hitherto  paid  the  cheap  wages  of  poor  teachers, 
which,  after  all,  as  has  been  well  observed,  is  but  "buying  ignorance  at 
a  dear  rate."* 

*  See  Note  D,  at  the  close  of  this  article. 

*  The  New  England  practice  of  having  district  schools  taught  by  college-students, 
during  their  winter  vacation,  has  been  of  great  and  acknowledeged  utility  both  to  the 
teachers  and  the  schools.  I  have  no  desire  to  discourage  this  good  old  practice ;  for  I 
apprehend  that  our  common  district  schools,  for  many  years  to  come,  will  need  the 
services  of  temporary  teachers  of  this  kind.  It  is  to  be  wished,  however,  that  our 
colleges  would  make  some  provision  for  the  special  instruction  of  such  students  as 
engage  in  teaching.  It  would  not  only  make  their  teachers  much  more  valuable,  but 
would  fit  them  also  to  become  school-examiners  and  inspectors  after  they  have  left  the 
vocation  of  schoolmaster  for  some  more  lucrative  employment. 


8TOWE   ON    NORMAL    SCHOOLS.  143 

NOTES 

(A.) 

CHINESE    EDUCATION. 

There  is  a  regular  system  of  schools  in  China  of  two  kinds — the  peo- 
ple's schools,  and  schools  for  the  nobles.  The  course  commences  when 
the  child  is  five  years  old,  and  is  continued  very  rigorously,  with  but 
few  and  short  vacations,  to  the  age  of  manhood.  In  the  people's  schools 
the  course  consists  of  four  parts,  each  of  which  has  its  appropriate 
book.  The  first  is  called  Pe-kia-sing,  and  contains  the  names  of  persons 
in  one  hundred  families,  which  the  children  must  commit  to  memory. 
The  second  is  called  Tsa-tse,  and  contains  a  variety  of  matters  neces- 
sary to  be  known  in  the  common  business  of  life.  The  third  is  called 
Tsien-tse-ouen,  a  collection  of  one  thousand  alphabetical  letters.  The 
fourth  is  San-tse-king,  a  collection  of  verses  of  three  syllables  each,  de- 
signed to  teach  the  elements  of  Chinese  morals  and  history.  Such  is  the 
provision  for  the  common  people. 

For  the  nobles  there  is  a  great  university  at  Pekin,  the  Koue-tze-kien, 
to  which  every  mandarin  is  allowed  to  send  one  of  his  sons.  The  can- 
didate for  admission  must  go  first  to  the  governor  of  a  city  of  the 
third  rank  for  examination,  and  if  approved,  he  receives  the  degree  of 
Hien-ming.  He  then  goes  to  the  governor  of  a  city  of  the  first  rank, 
and,  if  he  maintains  a  good  examination  there,  is  admitted  to  the  uni- 
versity. 

A  mandarin  is  annually  sent  out  from  Pekin,  to  visit  the  higher  in- 
stitutions in  the  larger  cities,  and  to  confer  degrees  on  the  pupils,  ac- 
cording to  their  progress.  A  class  of  four  hundred  is  selected,  and 
passes  through  ten  examinations.  The  fifteen  who  have  acquitted  them- 
selves best  in  all  these  examinations,  receive  the  degree  of  Sinoa-tsay, 
the  most  important  privilege  of  which  is,  that  they  are  no  longer  liable 
to  be  whipped  with  the  bamboo.  Rich  men's  sons,  who  cannot  always 
obtain  this  degree  by  a  successful  passage  through  the  ten  examina- 
tions, can  procure  the  equivalent  degree  of  Kien-song  by  paying  a  stip- 
ulated sum  into  the  public  treasury.  Having  attained  either  of  these 
lower  degrees,  the  pupil,  after  three  years,  can  offer  himself  at  Pekin 
for  the  higher  degree  of  Kinjin,  which  must  be  obtained  after  rigorous 
examination.  The  successful  applicants  for  the  honor,  after  one  year 
longer,  can  demand  at  Pekin  an  examination  for  the  highest  acad- 
emical degree,  that  of  Tsin-tse.  He  who  obtains  this  is  congratulated 
and  feasted  by  his  friends;  he  is  regarded  with  veneration  by  the  peo- 
ple, is  eligible  to  the  highest  office  in  the  State,  and  may  be  raised  by 
the  Emperor  to  the  dignity  of  Han-lin. 

The  Emperor  himself  is  required  to  be  a  man  of  learning,  and  the 
care  of  his  early  education  is  committed  to  a  special  college  of  learned 
men,  called  Tschea-sza-fu;  and  he  is  regarded  in  law  as  the  educator 
and  instructor  of  his  people,  as  well  as  their  ruler.  In  each  village  there 
is  a  public  hall,  where  the  civil  and  military  functionaries  assemble  on 
the  first  and  fifteenth  of  every  month,  and  a  discourse  is  delivered  to 
them  on  the  Sacred  Edict.  This  Sacred  Edict  contains,  1.  The  principles 
of  Khong-hi,  an  ancient  emperor.  2.  A  commentary  by  his  son,  Young- 
tching,  who  reigned  about  the  year  1700;  and,  3.  A  paraphrase  by  Wang- 
yeou-po.  It  was  translated  into  English  by  Rev.  W.  Milne,  Protestant 
Missionary  at  Malacca,  and  printed  in  London  in  1817. 

In  the  above  brief  sketch,  it  is  plain  that  the  Chinese  have  a  great 
veneration  for  learning,  and  that  the  emoluments  and  honors  of  the 
empire  are  designed  to  be  accessible  to  those  only  who  have  taken 
academical  degrees.  But  the  whole  system  is  arranged  to  make  them 


144  STOWE    ON    NORMAL    SCHOOLS. 

Chinese.  It  excludes  every  thing  of  foreign  origin,  it  admits  neither 
improvement  nor  variation,  and  the  result  is  manifest  in  the  character 
of  the  people. 

Some,  however,  of  our  modern  improvements  have  long  been  known 
and  practiced  in  the  Chinese  schools.  Such  as  the  practice  of  the  chil- 
dren reading  and  repeating  together  in  choir,  the  art  of  mnemonics, 
and  others  of  the  like  kind. — See  Schwartz's  Geschichte  der  Erziehung, 
vol.  i.  p.  68-75. 

(B.) 

PRUSSIAN    SCHOOLS   A   FEW   TEARS   AGO. 

The  following  questions  and  answers  are  from  Dr.  Julius's  testimony, 
before  the  Committee  of  the  British  House  of  Commons,  in  1834,  re- 
specting the  Prussian  School  System. 

"Do  you  remember,  from  your  own  knowledge,  what  the  character 
and  attainments  of  the  schoolmasters  were  previous  to  the  year  1819?" 

"I  do  not  recollect;  but  I  know  they  were  very  badly  composed  of 
non-commissioned  officers,  organists,  and  half-drunken  people.  It  has 
not  risen  like  a  fountain  at  once.  Since  1770,  there  has  been  much  done 
in  Prussia,  and  throughout  Germany,  for  promoting  education  of  teach- 
ers, and  by  them  of  children." 

"In  your  own  observation  has  there  been  any  very  marked  improve- 
ment in  the  character  and  attainments  of  schoolmasters,  owing  to  the 
pains  taken  to  which  you  have  referred?" 

"A  very  decided  improvement." 

Dinter,  in  his  autobiography,  gives  some  surprising  specimens  of 
gross  incapacity  in  teachers,  even  subsequent  to  1819.  The  following 
anecdotes  are  from  that  interesting  work,  Dinner's  Leben  von  ihm 
selbst  beschrieben. 

In  the  examination  of  a  school  in  East  Prussia,  which  was  taught  by 
a  subaltern  officer  dismissed  from  the  army,  the  teacher  gave  Dinter 
a  specimen  of  his  skill  in  the  illustration  of  Scripture  narrative.  The 
passage  was  Luke  vii.,  the  miracle  of  raising  the  widow's  son  at  Nain. 
"See,  children  (says  the  teacher),  Nain  was  a  great  city,  a  beautiful 
city;  but  even  in  such  a  great,  beautiful  city,  there  lived  people  who 
must  die.  They  brought  the  dead  youth  out.  See,  children,  it  was  the 
same  then  as  it  is  now — dead  people  couldn't  go  alone — they  had  to  be 
carried.  He  that  was  dead  began  to  speak.  This  was  a  sure  sign  that  he 
was  alive  again,  for  if  he  had  continued  dead  he  couldn't  have  spoken 
a  word" 

In  a  letter  to  the  King,  a  dismissed  schoolmaster  complained  that  the 
district  was  indebted  to  him  200705  dollars.  Dinter  supposed  the  man 
must  be  insane,  and  wrote  to  the  physician  of  the  place  to  inquire.  The 
physician  replied  that  the  poor  man  was  not  insane,  but  only  ignorant 
of  the  numeration  table,  writing  200  70  5  instead  of  275.  Dinter  sub- 
joins, "By  the  help  of  God,  the  King,  and  good  men,  very  much  has  now 
been  done  to  make  things  better." 

In  examining  candidates  for  the  school-teacher's  office,  Dinter  asked 
one  where  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia  was  situated.  He  replied,  that  *ie 
believed  it  was  somewhere  in  the  southern  part  of  India.  He  asked  an- 
other the  cause  of  the  ignisfatuus,  commonly  called  Jack-with-the-lan- 
tern.  He  said  they  were  specters  made  by  the  devil.  Another  being 
asked  why  he  wished  to  become  a  school-teacher,  replied,  that  he  must 
get  a  living  somehow. 

A  military  man  of  great  influence  once  urged  Dinter  to  recommend 
a  disabled  soldier,  in  whom  he  was  interested,  as  a  school-teacher.  "I 
will  do  so,"  says  Dinter,  "if  he  sustains  the  requisite  examination." 
"Oh,"  says  the  Colonel,  "he  doesn't  know  much  about  school-teaching, 


8TOWE   ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  145 

but  he  Is  a  good,  moral,  steady  man,  and  I  hope  you  will  recommend 
him  to  oblige  me."  D. — O  yes,  Colonel,  to  oblige  you,  if  you  in  your  turn 
will  do  me  a  favor.  Col. — What  is  that?  D. — Get  me  appointed  drum- 
major  in  your  regiment.  True,  I  can  neither  beat  a  drum,  nor  play  a 
fife;  but  I  am  a  good,  moral,  steady  man  as  ever  lived. 

A  rich  landholder  once  said  to  him,  "Why  do  you  wish  the  peasant 
children  to  be  educated?  it  will  only  make  them  unruly  and  disobed- 
ient." Dinter  replied,  "If  the  masters  are  wise,  and  the  laws  good,  the 
more  intelligent  the  people,  the  better  they  will  obey." 

Dinter  complained  that  the  military  system  of  Prussia  was  a  great 
hindrance  to  the  schools.  A  nobleman  replied  that  the  young  men  en- 
joyed the  protection  of  the  government,  and  were  thereby  bound  to 
defend  it  by  arms.  Dinter  asked  if  every  stick  of  timber  in  the  house 
ought  first  to  be  used  in  a  fire-engine,  because  the  house  was  protected 
by  the  engine?  or  whether  it  would  be  good  policy  to  cut  down  all  the 
trees  of  an  orchard  to  build  a  fence  with,  to  keep  the  hogs  from  eating 
the  fruit? 

(C.) 

SCHOOL-COUNSELOR  DINTER. 

GUSTAVUS  FREDERICK  DINTER  was  born  at  a  village  near  Leipsic,  in 
1760.  He  first  distinguished  himself  as  principal  of  a  Teachers'  Sem- 
inary in  Saxony,  whence  he  was  invited  by  the  Prussian  government 
to  the  station  of  School-Counselor  for  Eastern  Prussia.  He  resides  at 
Konigsberg,  and  about  ninety  days  in  the  year  he  spends  in  visiting 
the  schools  of  his  province,  and  is  incessantly  employed  nearly  thir- 
teen hours  a  day  for  the  rest  of  his  time,  in  the  active  duties  of  his 
office;  and  that  he  may  devote  himself  more  exclusively  to  his  work, 
he  lives  unmarried.  He  complains  that  his  laborious  occupation  pre- 
vents his  writing  as  much  as  he  wishes  for  the  public,  yet,  in  addition 
to  his  official  duties,  he  lectures  several  times  a  week,  during  term- 
time,  in  the  University  at  Konigsberg,  and  always  has  in  his  house  a 
number  of  indigent  boys,  whose  education  he  superintends,  and,  though, 
poor  himself,  gives  them  board  and  clothing.  He  has  made  it  a  rule  to 
spend  every  Wednesday  afternoon,  and,  if  possible,  one  whole  day  in 
the  week  besides,  in  writing  for  the  press;  and  thus,  by  making  the 
best  use  of  every  moment  of  time,  though  he  was  nearly  forty  years 
old  before  his  career  as  an  author  commenced,  he  has  contrived  to  pub- 
lish more  than  sixty  original  works,  some  of  them  extending  to  several 
volumes,  and  all  of  them  popular.  Of  one  book,  a  school  catechism,  fifty 
thousand  copies  were  sold  previous  to  1830;  and  of  his  large  work,  the 
School-Teacher's  Bible,  in  9  volumes  8vo,  thirty  thousand  copies  were 
sold  in  less  than  ten  years. 

He  is  often  interrupted  by  persons  who  are  attracted  by  his  fame,  or 
desire  his  advice;  and  while  conversing  with  his  vistors,  that  no  time 
may  be  lost,  he  employs  himself  in  knitting;  and  thus  not  only  supplies 
himself  with  stockings  and  mittens,  suited  to  that  cold  climate,  but 
always  has  some  to  give  away  to  indigent  students  and  other  poor  peo- 
ple. His  disinterestedness  is  quite  equal  to  his  activity,  and  of  the  in- 
come of  his  publications,  he  devotes  annually  nearly  five  hundred  dol- 
lars to  benevolent  purposes.  Unweariedly  industrious,  and  rigidly  eco- 
nomical as  he  is,  he  lays  up  nothing  for  himself.  He  says,  "I  am  one  of 
those  happy  ones,  who,  when  the  question  is  put  to  them,  'Lack  ye  any 
thing?'  (Luke  xxii.  35),  can  answer  with  joy,  'Lord,  nothing.'  To  have 
more  than  one  can  use  is  superfluity;  and  I  do  not  see  how  this  can 
make  any  one  happy.  People  often  laugh  at  me,  because  I  will  not  in- 
cur the  expense  of  drinking  wine,  and  because  I  do  not  wear  richer 
clothing,  and  live  in  a  more  costly  style.  Laugh  away,  good  people;  the 

J 


146  STOWE  ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS. 

poor  boys,  also,  whose  education  I  pay  for,  and  for  whom,  besides,  I 
can  spare  a  few  dollars  for  Christmas  gifts,  and  new-year's  presents, 
they  have  their  laugh  too." 

Toward  the  close  of  his  autobiography,  he  says  respecting  the  King  of 
Prussia,  "I  live  happily  under  Frederick  William;  he  has  just  given 
me  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dollars  to  build  churches  with  in 
destitute  places;  he  has  established  a  new  Teachers'  Seminary  for  my 
poor  Polanders,  and  he  has  so  fulfilled  my  every  wish  for  the  good  of 
posterity,  that  I  can  myself  hope  to  live  to  see  the  time  when  there 
shall  be  no  schoolmaster  in  Prussia  more  poorly  paid  than  a  common 
laborer.  He  has  never  hesitated,  during  the  whole  term  of  my  office, 
to  grant  me  any  reasonable  request  for  the  helping  forward  of  the 
school-system.  God  bless  him!  I  am  with  all  my  heart  a  Prussian.  And 
now,  my  friends,  when  ye  hear  that  old  Dinter  is  dead,  say  'May  he 
rest  in  peace;  he  was  a  laborious,  good-hearted,  religious  man;  he  was 
a  Christian." 

A  few  such  men  in  the  United  States  would  effect  a  wonderful  change 
in  the  general  tone  of  our  educational  efforts. 

(D.) 

IMPROVEMENT  OF   SCHOOL-TEACHERS. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  late  school  efforts  in  Prussia,  for  the 
benefit  of  teachers  already  in  the  profession  who  had  not  possessed  the 
advantages  of  a  regular  training,  it  was  the  custom  for  them  to  as- 
semble during  the  weeks  of  vacation  in  their  schools,  and,  under  the 
care  of  a  competent  teacher,  go  through  a  regular  course  of  lessons  for 
their  improvement.  Of  the  entire  course  a  careful  and  minute  journal 
was  kept  and  transmitted  to  the  government.  The  following  is  from 
the  journal  of  a  four  weeks'  course  of  this  kind,  which  was  held  at 
Regenwald  in  1821,  under  the  charge  of  School-Counselor  Bernhardt. 
The  King  gave  his  special  approbation  of  this  journal,  and  caused  a 
large  number  of  copies  to  be  printed  and  circulated  throughout  the 
kingdom.  The  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  expresses  himself  re- 
specting it  in  the  following  terms: — 

"The  view  presented  and  acted  upon  by  School-Counselor  Bernhardt, 
that  the  important  point  is  not  the  quantity  and  variety  of  knowledge 
communicated,  but  its  solidity  and  accuracy;  and  that  the  foundation 
of  all  true  culture  consists  in  the  education  to  piety,  the  fear  of  God, 
and  Christian  humility;  and,  accordingly,  that  those  dispositions,  be- 
fore all  things  else,  must  be  awakened  and  confirmed  in  teachers,  that 
thereby  they  may  exercise  love,  long-suffering,  and  cheerfulness,  in 
their  difficult  and  laborious  calling — these  principles  are  the  only  cor- 
rect ones,  according  to  which  the  education  of  teachers  every  where, 
and  in  all  cases,  can  and  ought  to  be  conducted,  notwithstanding  the 
regard  which  must  be  had  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  and  the  intel- 
lectual condition  of  particular  provinces  and  communities.  The  Minis- 
try hereby  enjoin  it  anew  upon  the  Regency,  not  only  to  make  these 
principles  their  guide  in  their  own  labors  in  the  common  schools  and 
Teachers'  Seminaries,  but  also  to  command  and  urge  them  in  the  most 
emphatic  manner  on  all  teachers  and  pupils  in  their  jurisdiction. 
That  this  will  be  faithfully  done,  the  Ministry  expect  with  so  much  the 
more  confidence,  because  in  this  way  alone  can  the  supreme  will  of  his 
Majesty  the  King,  repeatedly  and  earnestly  expressed,  be  fulfilled.  Of 
the  manner  in  which  the  Regency  execute  this  order,  the  Ministry  ex- 
pect a  Report,  and  only  remark  further,  that  as  many  copies  of  the 
journal  as  may  be  needed  will  be  supplied." 

The  strongly  religious  character  of  the  instructions  in  the  following 
journal  will  be  noticed;  but  will  any  Christian  find  fault  with  this 
characteristic,  or  with  the  King  and  Ministry  for  commending  it? 


STOWE  ON   NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  147 

The  journal  gives  an  account  of  the  employment  of  every  hour  In 
the  day,  from  half  past  six  in  the  morning  to  a  quarter  before  nine  in 
the  evening.  Instead  of  making  extracts  from  different  parts  of  it,  I 
here  present  the  entire  journal  for  the  last  week  of  the  course,  that 
the  reader  may  have  the  better  opportunity  of  forming  his  own  judg- 
ment on  the  real  merits  of  the  system. 

FOURTH   WEEK. 

Monday,  Oct.  22. — A.  M.  6% -7.  Meditation.  Teachers  and  parents,  for- 
get not  that  your  children  are  men,  and  that,  as  such,  they  have  the 
ability  to  become  reasonable.  God  will  have  all  men  to  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  As  men,  our  children  have  the  dignity  of  men, 
and  a  right  to  life,  cultivation,  honor,  and  truth.  This  is  a  holy,  inalien- 
able right,  that  is,  no  man  can  divest  himself  of  it  without  ceasing  to 
be  a  man.  7-8%.  Bible  instruction.  Reading  the  Bible,  and  verbal  anal- 
ysis of  what  is  read.  Jesus  in  the  wilderness.  9-12.  Writing.  Exercise 
in  small  letters.  P.  M.  2-5.  Writing  as  before.  5%-7  Singing.  8-8%. 
Meditation.  Our  schools  should  be  Christian  schools  for  Christian  chil- 
dren, and  Jesus  Christ  should  be  daily  the  chief  teacher.  One  thing  is 
needful.  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  The 
great  end  of  our  schools,  therefore,  is  the  instruction  of  children  in 
Christianity;  or  the  knowledge  of  heavenly  truths  in  hope  of  eternal 
life;  and  to  answer  the  question,  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?  Our 
children,  as  they  grow  up,  must  be  able  to  say,  from  the  conviction  of 
their  hearts,  We  know  and  are  sure  that  thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  the  living  God.  Beloved  teachers,  teach  no  Christianity  without 
Christ,  and  know  that  there  cannot  be  a  living  faith  without  knowl- 
edge and  love. 

Tuesday,  Oct.  23. — A.  M.  6-7.  Meditation.  Christian  Schools  are  the 
gardens  of  God's  spirit,  and  the  plantations  of  humanity,  and,  there- 
fore, holy  places.  How  dreadful  is  this  place!  This  is  none  other  than 
the  house  of  God.  Teachers,  venerate  your  schools — regard  the  sacred  as 
sacred.  7-8%.  Bible  instruction.  Reading  of  the  Bible  and  verbal  anal- 
ysis of  what  is  read.  Luke  xv.  1-10.  8%-9.  Catechism.  Repeating  the  sec- 
ond article  with  proper  emphasis,  and  the  necessary  explanation  of 
terms.  10-12.  Writing.  Exercises  in  German  capitals,  with  the  writing 
of  syllables  and  words.  P.  M.  1-4.  General  repetition  of  the  instructions 
for  school-teachers  given  during  the  month.  4-5.  Brief  instruction  re- 
specting school  discipline  and  school  laws.  5-7  Singing.  8-8%.  Medita- 
tion. Teachers,  you  should  make  your  school  a  house  of  prayer,  not  a 
den  of  murderers.  Thou  shalt  not  kill — that  is,  thou  shalt  do  no  injury 
to  the  souls  of  thy  children.  This  you  will  do  if  you  are  an  ungodly 
teacher,  if  you  neglect  your  duty,  if  you  keep  no  order  or  discipline  in 
your  school,  if  you  instruct  the  children  badly,  or  not  at  all,  and  set 
before  them  an  injurious  example.  The  children  will  be  injured  also 
by  hurrying  through  the  school-prayers,  the  texts,  the  catechism,  and 
by  all  thoughtless  reading  and  committing  to  memory.  May  God  help 
you! 

Wednesday,  Oct.  24. — 6-6%.  Meditation.  Dear  teachers,  you  labor  for 
the  good  of  mankind  and  the  kingdom  of  God;  be,  therefore,  God's  in- 
struments and  co-workers.  Thy  kingdom  come.  In  all  things  approv- 
ing ourselves  as  ministers  of  God.  6%-8%.  Bible  instruction  as  before, 
John  iv.  1-15.  8%-9.  Catechism.  The  correct  and  emphatic  reading  and 
repeating  of  the  first  section,  with  brief  explanation  of  terms.  10-12. 
Instruction  in  school  discipline  and  school  laws.  P.  M.  1-3.  Instruction 
in  the  cultivation  of  fruit-trees.  For  instruction  in  this  branch  of  econ- 
omy, the  school  is  arranged  in  six  divisions,  each  under  the  care  of  a 
teacher  acquainted  with  the  business,  with  whom  they  go  into  an  or- 
chard, and  under  his  inspection  perform  all  the  necessary  work.  Gen- 


148  STOWE  ON   NORMAL   SCHOOLS. 

eral  principles  and  directions  are  written  in  a  book,  of  which  each  stu- 
dent has  a  copy.  More  cooling  is  the  shade,  and  more  sweet  the  fruit, 
of  the  tree  which  thine  own  hands  have  planted  and  cherished.  3-5. 
Instruction  in  school  discipline  and  school  laws.  5J/4-%.  Singing.  8-9, 
Meditation.  The  Christian  school-teacher  is  also  a  good  husband  and 
father.  Blameless,  the  husband  of  one  wife,  vigilant,  sober,  of  good 
behavior,  apt  to  teach,  not  given  to  wine,  no  striker,  not  greedy  of 
filthy  lucre,  patient,  not  a  brawler,  not  covetous,  one  that  ruleth  well 
his  own  house,  having  his  children  in  subjection,  with  all  gravity.  He 
that  readeth,  let  him  understand. 

Thursday,  Oct.  25. — A.  M.  6-6%.  Meditation.  Dear  teachers,  do  all  in 
your  power  to  live  in  harmony  and  peace  with  your  districts,  that  you 
may  be  a  helper  of  the  parents  in  the  bringing  up  of  their  children. 
Endeavor  to  maintain  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  As 
much  as  in  you  lies,  live  peaceably  with  all  men.  6%-9.  Bible  instruc- 
tion as  before,  Luke  vii.  11-17.  Reading  by  sentences,  by  words,  by 
syllables,  by  letters.  Reading  according  to  the  sense,  with  questions  as 
to  the  meaning.  Understandest  thou  what  thou  readest?  10-11.  Instruc- 
tions as  to  prayer  in  schools.  Forms  of  prayer  suitable  for  teachers  and 
children  are  copied  and  committed  to  memory.  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray. 
11-12.  Writing.  Exercise  in  capitals  and  writing  words.  P.  M.  2-3.  In- 
struction respecting  prayer  in  the  family  and  in  the  school.  Forms  of 
prayer  for  morning  and  evening,  and  at  the  table,  are  copied,  with  in- 
structions that  school  children  should  commit  them  to  memory,  that 
they  may  aid  their  parents  to  an  edifying  performance  of  the  duty  of 
family  worship;  that,  as  the  school  thus  helps  the  family,  so  the  fam- 
ily also  may  help  the  school.  Use  not  vain  repetitions.  3-5.  Bible  in- 
struction. General  views  of  the  contents  of  the  Bible,  and  how  the 
teacher  may  communicate,  analyze,  and  explain  them  to  his  children, 
yearly,  at  the  commencement  of  the  winter  and  summer  terms.  5^-7. 
Singing.  8-9.  Meditation.  Teachers,  acquire  the  confidence  and  love  of 
your  districts,  but  never  forsake  the  direct  path  of  duty.  Fear  God, 
do  right,  and  be  afraid  of  no  man.  The  world,  with  its  lusts,  passeth 
away,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  shall  abide  forever. 

Friday,  Oct.  26. — Meditation.  Teachers,  hearken  to  the  preacher,  and 
labor  into  his  hands;  for  he  is  placed  over  the  Church  of  God,  who  will 
have  the  school  be  an  aid  to  the  Church.  Remember  them  that  labor 
among  you,  and  are  over  you  in  the  Lord,  and  esteem  them  highly  in 
love  for  their  works'  sake.  Neither  is  he  that  planteth  any  thing,  nor 
he  that  watereth  any  thing,  but  God  who  giveth  the  increase.  7-9. 
Bible  instruction.  Summary  of  the  contents  of  the  Bible,  to  be  com- 
mitted to  memory  by  children  from  ten  to  fifteen  years  of  age.  10-12. 
Bible  instruction.  Brief  statement  of  the  contents  of  the  historical 
books  of  the  New  Testament.  P.  M.  1-5.  Bible  instruction.  Contents  of 
the  doctrinal  and  prophetical  books  of  the  New  Testament.  Selection 
of  the  passages  of  the  New  Testament  proper  to  be  read  in  a  country 
school.  A  guide  for  teachers  to  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  schools.  5-7. 
Singing.  8-9.  Meditation.  Honor  and  love,  as  a  good  teacher,  thy  King 
and  thy  father-land;  and  awake  the  same  feelings  and  sentiments  in 
the  hearts  of  thy  children.  Fear  God,  honor  the  King,  seek  the  good  of 
the  country  in  which  you  dwell,  for  when  it  goes  well  with  it,  it  goes 
well  with  thee. 

Saturday,  Oct.  27. — 6-6  *£.  Meditation.  By  the  life  in  the  family,  the 
school,  and  the  church,  our  heavenly  Father  would  educate  us  and  our 
children  for  our  earthly  and  heavenly  home;  therefore  parents,  teach- 
ers, and  preachers,  should  labor  hand  in  hand.  One  soweth  and  another 
reapeth.  I  have  laid  the  foundation,  another  buildeth  thereon;  and  let 
every  man  take  heed  how  he  buildeth  thereon.  Means  of  education:  1. 
In  the  family — the  parents,  domestic  life,  habits;  2.  In  the  school — the 


8TOWE  ON    NORMAL   SCHOOLS.  149 

teacher,  the  instruction,  the  discipline;  3.  In  the  church — the  preach- 
ing, the  word,  the  sacraments.  6%-9%.  Bible  instruction.  Rules  which 
the  teacher  should  observe  in  reading  the  Bible.  In  analyzing  it.  In  re- 
spect to  the  contents  of  the  Old  Testament  books,  and  selections  from 
them  for  reading,  written  instructions  are  given  and  copied,  on  ac- 
count of  the  shortness  of  the  time  which  is  here  given  to  this  topic. 
10-12.  Bible  instruction.  General  repetition.  P.  M.  1-4.  Bible  instruction. 
General  repetition.  4-5.  Reading.  Knowledge  of  the  German  language, 
with  written  exercises.  7-10  Vk.  Review  of  the  course  of  instruction  and 
the  journal.  10%-12.  Meditation.  The  prayer  of  Jesus  (John  xvii.),  with 
particular  reference  to  our  approaching  separation. 

Sunday,  Oct.  28. — 6 %-9.  Morning  prayer.  Catechism.  Close  of  the  term. 
(In  the  open  air  on  a  hill  at  sunset)  singing  and  prayer.  Address  by 
the  head  teacher.  Subject.  What  our  teacher  would  say  to  us  when  we 
separate  from  him.  1.  What  you  have  learned  apply  well,  and  follow  it 
faithfully.  If  ye  knew  these  things,  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  them.  2. 
Learn  to  see  more  and  more  clearly  that  you  know  but  little.  We  know 
in  part.  3.  Be  continually  learning,  and  never  get  weary.  The  man  has 
never  lived  who  has  learned  all  that  he  might.  4.  Be  yourself  what  you 
would  have  your  children  become.  Become  as  little  children.  5.  Let 
God's  grace  be  your  highest  good,  and  let  it  strengthen  you  in  the  dif- 
ficulties which  you  must  encounter.  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee — • 
my  strength  is  perfect  in  thy  weakness.  6.  Keep  constantly  in  mind  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  has  left  us  an  example  that  we  should  follow 
his  steps.  Hymn — Lord  Jesus  Christ,  hearken  thou  to  us.  Prayer.  Ben- 
ediction. 

Review  of  the  hours  spent  in  different  studies  during  the  four  weeks. 
Arithmetic,  sixty -seven;  writing,  fifty-six;  Bible,  twenty-five;  medita- 
tion, thirty-six;  other  subjects,  twenty-six;  singing,  twenty-eight.  To- 
tal, two  hundred  and  thirty-eight.  From  nine  to  ten,  in  the  morning, 
was  generally  spent  in  walking  together,  and  one  hour  in  the  after- 
noon was  sometimes  spent  in  the  same  manner. 

Familiar  lectures  were  given  on  the  following  topics:  1.  Directions 
to  teachers  as  to  the  knowledge  and  right  use  of  the  Bible  in  schools. 
2.  Directions  to  teachers  respecting  instruction  in  writing.  3.  Direc- 
tions for  exercises  in  mental  arithmetic.  4.  Instructions  respecting 
school  discipline  and  school  laws.  5.  A  collection  of  prayers  for  the 
school  and  family,  with  directions  to  teachers.  6.  The  German  parts  of 
speech,  and  how  they  may  be  best  taught  in  a  country  school.  7.  The 
day-book. 

Printed  books  were  the  following:  1.  Dinter's  Arithmetic.  2.  Dinter 
on  Guarding  against  Fires.  3.  Brief  Biography  of  Luther.  4.  On  the 
Cultivation  of  Fruit-Trees.  5.  German  Grammar.  6.  Baumgarten's  Let- 
ter-Writer for  Country  Schools.  7.  Luther's  Catechism. 

That  which  can  be  learned  and  practiced  in  the  short  space  of  a  few 
weeks,  is  only  a  little — a  very  little.  But  it  is  not  of  so  much  import- 
ance that  we  have  more  knowledge  than  others;  but  most  depends  on 
this,  that  I  have  the  right  disposition;  and  that  I  thoroughly  under- 
stand and  faithfully  follow  out  the  little  which  I  do  know. 

God  help  me,  that  I  may  give  all  which  I  have  to  my  school;  and 
that  I,  with  my  dear  children,  may,  above  all  things,  strive  after  that 
which  is  from  above.  Father  in  heaven,  grant  us  strength  and  love  for 
this. 


PROCEEDINGS 

OF  AN 

EDUCATIONAL  CONVENTION  IN  PLYMOUTH  COUNTY,  IN  1838. 


In  the  autumn  of  1834,  Rev.  Charles  Brooks,  pastor  of  a 
church  in  Hingham,  commenced  his  labors  in  behalf  of  com- 
mon schools,  and  particularly  of  the  establishment  of  a  state 
system  of  supervision,  and  of  a  Normal  School.  Mr.  Brooks 
had  become  interested  in  these  features  of  a  system  of  pub- 
lic education  during  a  visit  to  Europe,  and  from  an  oppor- 
tunity of  becoming  well  acquainted  with  the  details  of  the 
Prussian  system,  in  conversation  with  Dr.  Julius,  who  was 
his  companion  across  the  Atlantic,  during  his  voyage  home, 
when  the  latter  gentleman  was  on  his  visit  to  this  country 
on  a  commission  from  the  Government  of  Prussia,  to  exam- 
ine into  our  system  of  prison  discipline.  As  will  be  seen 
hereafter,  that  visit  was  twice  blessed — it  helped,  by  dis- 
seminating a  knowledge  of  our  improvements  in  prisons, 
and  our  amelioration  of  the  criminal  code,  to  advance  the 
cause  of  humanity  in  Europe,  and  make  known  among  our 
statesmen  and  educators  the  progress  which  had  been  made 
in  Germany  in  the  means  and  agencies  of  popular  educa- 
tion. Mr.  Brooks'  first  public  effort  was  on  the  3d  of  Decem- 
ber, 1835,  in  a  thanksgiving  address  to  his  people,  in  which 
he  gave  a  sketch  of  the  Prussian  system  of  education,  and 
proposed  the  holding  a  series  of  conventions  of  the  friends 
of  common  schools  to  agitate  the  subject  of  establishing  a 
Normal  School  in  the  old  colony.  The  first  of  these  conven- 
tions was  held  on  the  7th  of  December,  1836,  and  continued 
in  session  two  days.  This  was  followed  by  a  second,  at  Hing- 
ham, on  the  llth ;  at  Duxbury,  on  the  18th ;  at  New  Bedford, 
on  the  21st  and  23d ;  at  Fair  Haven,  on  the  23d ;  and  at  East 
Bridgewater,  on  the  24th  and  25th  of  the  same  month.  Mr. 
Brooks  continued  his  labors  in  the  county  in  the  autumn 
and  winter  following,  sometimes  before  conventions,  and 
sometimes  by  his  individual  appointment.  He  was  at  Kings- 
ton on  the  16th  of  January,  1837 ;  at  South  Hingham,  Feb- 
ruary 4th;  at  Quincy,  February  21st;  at  Dunbury,  May 
10th ;  at  Hansen,  July  9th ;  at  Plymouth,  October  24th ;  and 
at  Weymouth,  November  5th. 

The  labors  of  this  gentleman  were  not  confined  to  the  old 
colony,  or  even  to  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  In  the  course 
of  the  same  year  he  lectured  at  Northampton,  Springfield, 


152  EDUCATIONAL  CONVKNTION  IN  PLYMOUTH   COUNTY. 

Deerfield,  Boston,  Middleborough,  and  other  places  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, in  1836  and  1837,  and  particularly  in  the  Hall  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  18th  and  19th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1837,  during  the  memorable  session  of  the  Legislature, 
in  which  the  Board  of  Education  was  instituted ;  and  on  the 
28th  of  January,  1838,  during  the  no  less  memorable  ses- 
sion, by  which  the  first  appropriation  in  behalf  of  Normal 
Schools  was  made.  His  theme  every  where  was  the  Teacher 
— "As  is  the  Teacher,  so  is  the  School," — and  the  aim  of  all 
his  discourses  was  to  induce  individuals  and  legislatures  to 
establish  Normal  Schools  and  other  agencies  for  improving 
the  qualifications  and  the  pecuniary  and  social  condition  of 
the  teacher,  as  the  source  of  all  other  improvements  in  pop- 
ular education.  His  facts  and  illustrations  were  drawn  from 
the  experience  of  Prussia  and  Holland.  Mr.  Brooks  closed 
his  active  labors  in  this  cause  in  Massachusetts  after  he  had 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  Board  of  Education  estab- 
lished, and  the  first  Normal  School  opened ;  but  not  until  he 
had  made  a  powerful  effort  to  get  one  of  these  institutions 
located  in  Plymouth  county,  by  means  of  the  educational 
convention  held  at  Hanover,  on  the  3d  of  September,  1838, 
which  was  graced  by  the  presence  and  address  of  several  of 
the  most  distinguished  public  men  in  the  commonwealth. 
After  noticing  the  proceedings  of  that  convention,  we  will 
return  to  our  narrative. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Plymouth  County  Association  for  the 
Improvement  of  Common  Schools,"  held  at  Hanover,  Sep- 
tember 3d,  1838,  the  question  of  a  Normal  School  in  Ply- 
mouth County  was  discussed  by  an  array  of  distinguished 
men,  such  as  the  cause  has  seldom  brought  together  in  this 
country.  The  following  notice  of  the  proceedings  is  abridged 
from  the  Hingham  Patriot.  After  an  address  by  Mr.  Mann, 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education,  on  "Special  Prepara- 
tion, a  Pre-requisite  to  Teaching,"  Rev.  Mr.  Brooks,  of 
Hingham,  introduced  a  resolution  approving  of  a  plan,  pro- 
posed by  a  committee  of  the  Association,  to  raise  in  the  sev- 
eral towns  in  the  county  a  sum  sufficient  to  provide  a  build- 
ing, fixtures,  and  apparatus,  in  order  to  secure  the  location 
of  one  of  the  three  Normal  Schools  which  the  Board  pro- 
posed to  establish  in  Plymouth  county.  Mr.  Brooks  excused 
himself  from  advocating  the  resolution,  inasmuch  as  he  had 
reiterated  his  views  on  the  subject  in  every  town  in  the 
county,  and  published  them  in  two  addresses  through  the 
press;  he  therefore  gave  way  to  friends  from  abroad,  who 
had  come  with  strong  hands  and  warm  hearts  to  aid  in  the 
holy  work. 


EDUCATIONAL  CONVENTION  IN  PLYMOUTH  COUNTY.  153 

Mr.  Ichabod  Morton,  of  Plymouth,  who  had,  two  years 
before,  out  of  a  large  heart,  and  small  resources,  offered  to 
meet  one  tenth  of  the  expense  of  the  enterprise,  advocated 
the  raising  up  better  teachers,  who,  by  a  Christian  educa- 
tion, could  carry  the  happiness  of  childhood  fresh  and  whole 
through  life. 

Mr.  Rantoul,  of  Gloucester,  thought  a  reformation  in  our 
common  schools  was  exceedingly  needed,  and  this  change 
for  the  better  could  only  be  effected  by  better  teachers, 
well  paid,  and  permanently  employed. 

Rev.  George  Putnam,  of  Roxburg : — 

"For  himself  he  saw  no  objection  to  the  establishment  of  Normal 
Schools.  But  perhaps  some  might  say,  there  was  no  need  of  special 
preparation  for  a  teacher.  To  this  opinion  he  must  emphatically  ob- 
ject. If  there  be  any  department  for  the  able  and  proper  performance 
of  whose  duties  special  instruction  is  absolutely  necessary,  it  is  that  of 
the  educator.  He  said  he  had  once  kept  school,  and  with  tolerable  ac- 
ceptance, he  believed,  to  his  employers,  but  though  just  from  college, 
he  found  himself  deficient  in  the  very  first  steps  of  elementary  knowl- 
edge. He  had  studied  all  the  mathematics  required  at  Cambridge,  but 
he  did  not  know  how  to  come  at  a  young  mind  so  as  successfully  to 
teach  enumeration.  He  had  studied  the  classics;  but  he  could  not  teach 
a  boy  how  to  construct  a  simple  English  paragraph.  He  found  himself 
wanting  in  that  highest  of  arts,  the  art  of  simplifying  difficult  things 
so  that  children  can  grasp  them.  He  therefore,  from  his  own  experi- 
ence, ventured  to  say,  that  no  liberal  profession  so  comes  short  of  its 
objects  as  that  of  the  schoolmaster.  Few,  very  few,  apprehend  its  dif- 
ficulties. To  know  how  to  enter  the  child's  soul,  and  when  there  to 
know  what  to  do,  is  knowledge  possesed  but  by  few,  and  if  there  be  a 
province  in  which  specific  preparation  be  necessary  it  is  this;  and  this 
very  preparation  is  what  Normal  Schools  promise  to  confer.  We  want 
no  law  schools,  or  any  higher  schools  or  colleges  at  this  time,  so  much 
as  we  want  seminaries,  to  unfold  the  young  minds  of  this  community. 
Another  objection  might  be  with  some,  that  a  Normal  School  in  Ply- 
mouth County  was  some  trick  of  the  rich  to  get  advantage  of  the  poor. 
He  ably  refuted  this  objection.  He  said  it  happened  to  have  a  directly 
opposite  tendency.  It  was  to  be  a  free  school;  free  in  tuition  and  open 
to  the  porest  of  the  poor.  It  would  eminently  benefit  the  poor.  The  rich 
would  not  go  to  it  except  where  a  great  love  of  teaching  actuated  a 
rich  young  person.  On  the  other  hand  it  would  be  a  free  school  where 
a  very  superior  education  would  be  furnished  gratis  to  any  one  who 
wished  to  become  a  teacher  in  the  county.  Another  objection  might  be 
felt  by  some,  viz.,  that  it  may  tend  to  raise  the  wages  of  our  teach- 
ers. To  this  he  replied,  that  females  might  become  teachers  to  a  wider 
extent  than  now.  It  would,  moreover,  raise  common  schools  to  be  the 
best  schools  in  the  community;  and  when  they  had  become  the  best 
schools,  as  they  should  be,  then  the  money  now  spent  in  private  schools 
would  be  turned  in  to  the  public  ones,  as  in  the  Latin  School  at  Bos- 
ton, and  higher  wages  could  be  given  without  any  additional  burden 
on  our  towns.  He  asked  why  should  not  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
have  the  best  schools?  Why  should  not  talent  and  money  be  expended 
on  town  schools  as  well  as  on  academies  and  colleges?  Let  the  town 
schools  be  made  as  good  as  to  force  all  parents,  from  mere  selfishness, 
to  send  their  children.  Let  all  our  young  people  come  together,  as  re- 
publicans should,  find  common  sympathies,  and  move  by  a  common 
set  of  nerves.  The  Normal  School,  while  it  opens  infinite  advantages  to 


154  EDUCATIONAL  CONVENTION   IN   PLYMOUTH   COUNTY. 

the  poor,  will  lessen  their  burdens  and  elevate  them  to  knowledge  and 
influence." 

Hon.  John  Quincy  Adams: — 

"He  had  examined  the  subject  of  late,  and  he  thought  the  move- 
ments in  this  county  by  the  friends  of  education  had  been  deliberate 
and  wise  and  Christian;  and  he  thought  the  plan,  contemplated  by  the 
very  important  resolution  before  the  meeting,  could  not  but  find  favor 
with  every  one  who  would  examine  and  comprehend  it.  All  accounts 
concur  in  stating  a  deficiency  of  competent  teachers.  He  said,  when  he 
came  to  that  meeting,  he  had  objections  to  the  plan  rising  in  his  mind; 
but  those  objections  had  been  met  and  so  clearly  answered,  that  he  now 
was  convinced  of  the  wisdom  and  forecast  of  the  project,  and  that  it 
aimed  at  the  best  interests  of  this  community.  Under  this  head,  and 
alluding  to  his  views,  he  said,  the  original  settlers  of  New  England 
were  the  first  people  on  the  face  of  the  globe  who  undertook  to  say  that 
all  children  should  be  educated.  On  this  our  democracy  has  been  found- 
ed. Our  town  schools,  and  town  meetings,  have  been  our  stronghold  in 
this  point;  and  our  efforts  now  are  to  second  those  of  our  pious  an- 
cestors. Some  kingdoms  of  Europe  have  been  justly  praised  for  their 
patronage  of  elementary  instruction,  but  they  were  only  following  our 
early  example.  Our  old  system  has  made  us  an  enlightened  people,  and 
I  feared  that  the  Normal  School  system  was  to  subvert  the  old  system, 
take  the  power  from  the  towns  and  put  it  into  the  state,  and  overturn 
the  old  democratic  principle  of  sustaining  the  schools  by  a  tax  on  prop- 
erty; but,  I  am  happy  to  find  that  this  is  not  its  aim  or  wish;  but  on 
the  contrary,  it  is  accordant  to  all  the  old  maxims,  and  would  elevate 
the  town  schools  to  the  new  wants  of  a  growing  community.  He  said, 
he  thought  of  other  objections,  but  they  were  so  faint  as  to  have  faded 
out  of  his  mind.  We  see  monarchs  expending  vast  sums,  establishing 
Normal  Schools  through  their  realms,  and  sparing  no  pains  to  convey 
knowledge  and  efficiency  to  all  the  children  of  their  poorest  subjects. 
Shall  we  be  outdone  by  Kings?  Shall  monarchies  steal  a  march  on  re- 
publics in  the  patronage  of  that  education  on  which  a  republic  is  based? 
On  this  great  and  glorious  cause  let  us  expend  freely,  yes,  more  freely 
than  on  any  other.  There  was  a  usage,  he  added,  in  the  ancient  republic 
of  Sparta,  which  now  occurred  to  him,  and  which  filled  his  mind  with 
this  pleasing  idea,  viz.,  that  these  endeavors  of  ours  for  the  fit  educa- 
tion of  all  our  children  would  be  the  means  of  raising  up  a  generation 
around  us  which  would  be  superior  to  ourselves.  The  usage  alluded  to 
was  this:  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  on  a  certain  day  collected  to- 
gether and  marched  in  procession;  dividing  themselves  into  three  com- 
panies; the  old,  the  middle-aged,  and  the  young.  When  assembled  for 
the  sports  and  exercises,  a  dramatic  scene  was  introduced,  and  the 
three  parties  had  each  a  speaker;  and  Plutarch  gives  the  form  of 
phraseology  used  in  the  several  addresses  on  the  occasion.  The  old 
men  speak  first;  and  addressing  those  beneath  them  in  age,  say, — 

"We  have  been  in  days  of  old 
Wise,  generous,  brave,   and  bold." 

Then  come  the  middle-aged,  and  casting  a  triumphant  look  at  their 
seniors,  say  to  them, — 

"That  which  in  days  of  yore  ye  were, 
We,  at  the  present  moment,  are." 

Last  march  forth  the  children,  and  looking  bravely  upon  both  com- 
panies who  had  spoken,  they  shout  forth  thus: — 

"Hereafter  at  our  country's  call. 
We  promise  to  surpass  you  all." 

Hon.  Daniel  Webster : — 

"He  was  anxious  to  concur  with  others  in  aid  of  the  project.  The 
ultimate  aim  was  to  elevate  and  improve  the  primary  schools;  and  to 


EDUCATIONAL  CONVENTION  IN  PLYMOUTH  COUNTY.  155 

secure  competent  instruction  to  every  child  which  should  he  born.  No 
object  is  greater  than  this;  and  the  means,  the  forms  and  agents  are 
each  and  all  important.  He  expressed  his  obligation  to  town  schools, 
and  paid  a  tribute  to  their  worth,  considering  them  the  foundation  of 
our  social  and  political  system.  He  said  he  would  gladly  bear  his  part 
of  the  expense.  The  town  schools  need  improvement;  for  if  they  are  no 
better  now  than  when  he  attended  them,  they  are  insufficient  to  the 
wants  of  the  present  day.  They  have,  till  lately,  been  overlooked  by 
men  who  should  have  considered  them.  He  rejoiced  at  the  noble  efforts 
here  made  of  late,  and  hoped  they  might  be  crowned  with  entire  suc- 
cess. *  *  It  has  become  the  fashion  to  teach  every  thing  through  the 
press.  Conversation,  so  valued  in  ancient  Greece,  is  overlooked  and 
neglected;  whereas  it  is  the  richest  source  of  culture.  We  teach  too 
much  by  manuals,  too  little  by  direct  intercourse  with  the  pupil's  mind; 
we  have  too  much  of  words,  too  little  of  things.  Take  any  of  the  com- 
mon departments,  how  little  do  we  really  know  of  the  practical  detail, 
say  geology.  It  is  taught  by  books.  It  should  be  taught  by  excursions 
in  the  fields.  So  of  other  things.  We  begin  with  the  abstracts,  and  know 
little  of  the  detail  of  facts;  we  deal  in  generals,  and  go  not  to  partic- 
ulars; we  begin  with  the  representative,  leaving  out  the  constituents. 
Teachers  should  teach  things.  It  is  a  reproach  that  the  public  schools 
are  not  superior  to  the  private.  If  I  had  as  many  sons  as  old  Priam,  I 
would  send  them  all  to  the  public  schools.  The  private  schools  have 
injured,  in  this  respect,  the  public;  they  have  impoverished  them.  They 
who  should  be  in  them  are  withdrawn;  and  like  so  many  uniform  com- 
panies taken  out  of  the  general  militia,  those  left  behind  are  none  the 
better.  This  plan  of  a  Normal  School  in  Plymouth  County  is  designed 
to  elevate  our  common  schools,  and  thus  to  carry  out  the  noble  ideas 
of  our  pilgrim  fathers.  There  is  growing  need  that  this  be  done.  But 
there  is  a  larger  view  yet.  Every  man  and  every  woman,  every  brother 
and  every  sister,  is  a  teacher.  Parents  are  eminently  teachers.  Every 
man  has  an  interest  in  the  community,  and  helps  his  share  to  shape  it. 
Now,  if  Normal  Schools  are  to  teach  teachers,  they  enlist  this  interest 
on  the  right  side;  they  make  parents  and  all  who  any  way  influence 
childhood  competent  to  their  high  office.  The  good  which  these  Sem- 
inaries are  thus  to  spread  through  the  community  is  incalculable.  They 
will  turn  all  the  noblest  enthusiasm  of  the  land  into  the  holy  channel 
of  knowledge  and  virtue.  Now,  if  our  Plymouth  school  succeeds,  they 
will  go  up  in  every  part  of  the  state,  and  who  then  can  compute  the 
exalted  character  which  they  may  finally  create  among  us?  In  families 
there  will  be  better  teaching,  and  the  effect  will  be  felt  throughout 
society.  This  effort  thus  far  has  done  good.  It  has  raised  in  many 
minds  a  clear  conviction  of  the  importance  of  competent  teachers;  and 
a  clear  benefit  to  follow  this  will  be,  to  raise  the  estimation  in  which 
teachers  should  be  held.  He  hoped  that  this  course  of  policy  would 
raise,  even  beyond  what  we  expected,  the  standard  of  elementary 
instruction.  He  considered  the  cost  very  slight.  It  can  not  come  into 
any  expanded  mind  as  an  objection.  If  it  be  an  experiment,  it  is  a 
noble  one,  and  should  be  tried." 

[Mr.  Webster  has  always  stood  out  a  bold  and  eloquent 
advocate  of  common  schools.  In  his  centennial  address  at 
Plymouth,  in  1822,  he  paid  the  following  noble  tribute  to  the 
policy  of  New  England  in  this  respect: — 

"In  this  particular,  New  England  may  be  allowed  to  claim,  I  think, 
a  merit  of  a  peculiar  character.  She  early  adopted  and  has  con- 
stantly maintained  the  principle,  that  it  is  the  undoubted  right,  and 
the  bounden  duty  of  government,  to  provide  for  the  instruction  of  all 
youth.  That  which  is  elsewhere  left  to  chance,  or  to  charity,  we 


156  EDUCATIONAL   CONVENTION   IN   PLYMOUTH   COUNTY. 

secure  by  law.  For  the  purpose  of  public  instruction,  we  hold  every 
man  subject  to  taxation  in  proportion  to  his  property,  and  we  look 
not  to  the  question,  whether  he  himself  have,  or  have  not,  children 
to  be  benefited  by  the  education  for  which  he  pays.  We  regard  it  as 
a  wise  and  liberal  system  of  police,  by  which  property,  and  life,  and 
the  peace  of  society  are  secured.  We  seek  to  prevent,  in  some  meas- 
ure, the  extension  of  the  penal  code,  by  inspiring  a  salutary  and 
conservative  principle  of  virtue  and  of  knowledge  in  an  early  age. 
We  hope  to  excite  a  feeling  of  respectibility,  and  a  sense  of  character, 
by  enlarging  the  capacity,  and  increasing  the  sphere  of  intellectual 
enjoyment.  By  general  instruction,  we  seek,  as  far  as  possible,  to 
purify  the  whole  moral  atmosphere;  to  keep  good  sentiments  upper- 
most, and  to  turn  the  strong  current  of  feeling  and  opinion,  as  well 
as  the  censures  of  the  law,  and  the  denunciations  of  religion,  against 
immorality  and  crime.  We  hope  for  a  security,  beyond  the  law,  and 
above  the  law,  in  the  prevalence  of  enlightened  and  well-principled 
moral  sentiment.  We  hope  to  continue  and  prolong  the  time,  when, 
in  the  villages  and  farm-houses  of  New  England,  there  may  be  un- 
disturbed sleep  within  unbarred  doors.  And  knowing  that  our  gov- 
ernment rests  directly  on  the  public  will,  that  we  may  preserve  it, 
we  endeavor  to  give  a  safe  and  proper  direction  to  that  public  will. 
We  do  not,  indeed,  expect  all  men  to  be  philosophers  or  statesmen; 
but  we  confidently  trust,  and  our  expectation  of  the  duration  of  our 
system  of  government  rests  on  that  trust,  that  by  the  diffusion  of 
general  knowledge  and  good  and  virtuous  sentiments,  the  political 
fabric  may  be  secure,  as  well  against  open  violence  and  overthrow,  as 
against  the  slow  but  sure  undermining  of  licentiousness." 

In  a  speech  delivered  at  Madison,  Indiana,  after  congrat- 
ulating the  people  of  the  state  on  the  attention  they  had  paid 
to  common  school  education,  Mr.  Webster  adds : — 

"Among  the  planets  in  the  sky  of  New  England — the  burning  lights, 
which  throw  intelligence  and  happiness  on  her  people — the  first  and 
most  brilliant  is  her  system  of  common  schools.  I  congratulate  myself 
that  my  first  speech  on  entering  public  life  was  in  their  behalf.  Edu- 
cation, to  accomplish  the  ends  of  good  government,  should  be  uni- 
versally diffused.  Open  the  doors  of  the  school-house  to  all  the 
children  of  the  land.  Let  no  man  have  the  excuse  of  poverty  for  not 
educating  his  own  offspring.  Place  the  means  of  education  within 
his  reach,  and  if  they  remain  in  ignorance,  be  it  his  own  reproach. 
If  one  object  of  the  expenditure  of  your  revenue  be  protection  against 
crime,  you  could  not  devise  a  better  or  cheaper  means  of  obtaining 
it.  Other  nations  spend  their  money  in  providing  means  for  its  de- 
tection and  punishment,  but  it  is  for  the  principles  of  our  government 
to  provide  for  its  never  occurring.  The  one  acts  by  coercion,  the  other 
by  prevention.  On  the  diffusion  of  education  among  the  people  rests 
the  preservation  and  perpetuation  of  our  free  institutions.  I  appre- 
hend no  danger  to  our  country  from  a  foreign  foe.  The  prospect  of  a 
war  with  any  powerful  nation  is  too  remote  to  be  a  matter  of  calcu- 
lation. Besides  there  is  no  nation  on  earth  powerful  enough  to 
accomplish  our  overthrow.  Our  destruction,  should  it  come  at  all, 
will  be  from  another  quarter.  From  the  inattention  of  the  people 
to  the  concerns  of  their  government — from  their  carelessness  and 
negligence — I  must  confess  that  I  do  apprehend  some  danger.  I  fear 
that  they  may  place  too  implicit  a  confidence  in  their  public  servants, 
and  fail  properly  to  scrutinize  their  conduct, — that  in  this  way  they 
may  be  made  the  dupes  of  designing  men,  and  become  the  instru- 
ments of  their  own  undoing.  Make  them  intelligent,  and  they  will  be 


EDUCATIONAL  CONVENTION  IN   PLYMOUTH  COUNTY.  157 

vigilant — give  them  the  means  of  detecting  the  wrong,  and  they  will 
apply  the  remedy."] 

Rev.  Dr.  Robbins  remarked — 

"As  the  offer  of  the  Normal  Schools  had  been  first  made  to  the  Old 
Colony,  that  "mother  of  us  all,"  he  hoped  that  the  descendants  of  the 
pilgrims  would  sustain  the  exalted  character  of  their  fathers;  and,  as 
in  times  past,  so  now,  go  forward  in  improvements  which  are  to 
elevate  and  bless  all  coming  generations." 

The  object  of  the  Convention  was  attained.  One  of  the 
three  Normal  Schools  which  the  Board  had  decided  to  es- 
tablish out  of  the  donation  of  $10,000,  by  Mr.  Dwight,  and 
the  appropriation  of  the  same  sum  by  the  state,  placed  at 
their  disposal,  was  located  at  Bridgewater,  in  Plymouth 
County. 

A  previous  convention  in  Plymouth  County,  at  Halifax, 
on  the  24th  of  January,  1837,  had  adopted  a  petition  to  the 
Legislature,  drawn  up  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Brooks,*  asking 
for  the  Establishment  of  a  Board  of  Education,  and  a 
Teachers'  Seminary ;  and  in  the  same  year,  the  Directors  of 
the  American  Institute  of  Instruction  presented  a  memorial 
on  the  same  subject,  drawn  up  by  George  B.  Eberson,f  of 
Boston.  The  Board  of  Education  was  established  in  that 
year,  and  the  Normal  School  in  the  year  following. 

*  Although  not  directly  connected  with  the  history  of  Normal  Schools  in  Massa- 
chusetts, it  may  be  mentioned  in  this  place,  that  no  individual  in  the  whole  country 
has  done  more  to  arouse  the  public  mind  of  New  England  to  the  importance  of  Nor- 
mal Schools,  and  to  some  extent,  the  leading  minds  of  some  other  states,  than  the 
Rev.  Charles  Brooks.  He  lectured  before  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire,  by  their 
request,  at  Concord,  on  the  13th,  14th,  and  15th  of  June,  1837  and  1838,  and  again 
in  1845,  and  in  the  former  year  at  Keene,  Portsmouth,  Concord,  and  Nashua;  before 
the  Legislature  of  Vermont,  in  1847,  and  at  several  other  points  in  that  state ;  before 
the  State  Convention  of  the  friends  of  education  at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1838 ;  before  the  Legislature  of  New  Jersey,  March  13,  1839 ;  at  Philadelphia 
about  the  same  time ;  and  at  Providence  in  1838,  during  the  struggle  which  ended  in 
the  re-organization  of  the  public  schools  of  that  city,  and  at  a  later  period,  when  the 
establishment  of  the  Public  High  School  was  in  jeopardy.  On  one  of  these  visits,  Mr. 
Brooks  delivered  eight  addresses  in  seven  days.  These,  however,  are  not  all  the  times 
and  places  in  which  we  have  met  with  notices  of  his  labors  and  addresses  in  behalf 
of  his  favorite  subject.  Although  his  labors,  every  where,  in  his  own  country  and  out 
of  it,  in  his  own  state  and  out  of  it,  were  gratuitous,  he  did  not  escape  the  assaults 
of  the  newspapers.  In  one  of  these,  he  was  represented  as  "Captain  Brooks,"  with 
ferule  in  hand,  at  the  head  of  a  troop  of  schoolmasters  and  schoolmistresses,  march- 
ing for  a  Normal  School  in  the  clouds. 

t  Mr.  Emerson  commenced  his  career  as  a  teacher,  in  a  district  school,  and  before 
opening  his  private  school  for  young  ladies,  he  was  principal  of  the  English  High 
School,  in  Boston,  on  its  first  establishment,  in  1821.  Under  his  immediate  direction, 
Colburn's  "First  Lessons  in  Intellectual  Arithmetic,"  printed  on  separate  sheets  for 
this  purpose,  were  first  tested,  and  the  deficiencies  ascertained  in  the  classes  of  this 
school.  If  Mr.  Emerson  had  rendered  no  other  service  to  the  cause  of  educational  im- 
provement in  this  country,  than  to  have  successfully  organized  the  First  Public  Eng- 
lish High  School,  and  have  assisted  in  perfecting  the  "First  Lessons,"  he  would  be 
entitled  to  a  large  measure  of  the  gratitude  of  teachers  and  the  public  generally. 


A  LECTURE,* 

ON  SPECIAL  PREPARATION,  A   PREREQUISITE   TO  TEACHING, 

1838. 

BY    HORACE    MANN, 


Gentlemen  of  the  Convention:' 

AFTER  the  lapse  of  another  year,  we  are  again  assembled  to  hold 
counsel  together  for  the  welfare  of  our  children.  On  this  occasion  we 
have  much  reason  to  meet  each  other  with  voices  of  congratulation 
and  hearts  of  gladness.  During  the  past  year  the  cause  of  Popular 
Education  in  this  Commonwealth  has  gained  some  suffrages  of  public 
opinion.  On  presenting  its  wants  and  its  claims  to  citizens  in  every 
part  of  the  State,  I  have  found  that  there  were  many  individuals  who 
appreciated  its  importance,  and  who  only  awaited  an  opportunity  to 
give  utterance  and  action  to  their  feelings; — in  almost  every  town, 
some, — in  many,  a  band. 

Some  of  our  hopes,  also,  have  become  facts.  The  last  Legislature 
acted  toward  this  cause  the  part  of  a  wise  and  faithful  guardian. 
Inquiries  having  been  sent  into  all  parts  of  the  Commonwealth  to 
ascertain  the  deficiencies  in  our  Common-School  system,  and  the 
causes  of  failure  in  its  workings;  and  the  results  of  those  inquiries 
having  been  communicated  to  the  Legislature, — together  with  sug- 
gestions for  the  application  of  a  few  obvious  and  energetic  remedies, — 
that  body  forthwith  enacted  such  laws  as  the  wants  of  the  system 
most  immediately  and  imperiously  demanded.  Probably  at  no  session 
since  the  origin  of  our  Common-School  system  have  laws  more 
propitious  to  its  welfare  been  made,  than  during  the  last. 
******** 

But  among  all  the  auspicious  events  of  the  past  year,  ought  not  the 
friends  of  Popular  Education  to  be  most  grateful,  on  account  of  the 
offer  made  by  a  private  gentlemant  to  the  Legislature,  of  the  sum 
of  ten  thousand  dollars,  upon  the  conditions  that  the  State  should  add 
thereto  an  equal  sum,  and  that  the  amount  should  be  expended,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Board  of  Education,  in  qualifying  teachers  for 
our  Common  Schools,  and  of  the  promptness  and  unanimity  with 
which  the  Legislature  acceded  to  the  proposition?  I  say,  the  unanimity 
for  the  vote  was  entirely  unanimous  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  there  was  but  one  nay  in  the  Senate.  Vast  donations  have  been 
made  in  this  Commonwealth,  both  by  the  government  and  by  indi- 
viduals, for  the  cause  of  learning  in  some  of  its  higher,  and,  of  course, 
more  limited  departments;  but  I  believe  this  to  be  the  first  instance 
where  any  considerable  sum  has  been  given  for  the  cause  of  educa- 
tion, generally,  and  irrespective  of  class,  or  sect,  or  party.  Munificent 
donations  have  frequently  been  made,  among  ourselves,  as  well  as  in 
other  States  and  countries,  to  perpetuate  some  distinctive  theory  or 
dogma  of  one's  own,  or  to  requite  a  peculiar  few  who  may  have 

*  Copied,  by  permission,  from  Lectures  on  Education  by  Horace  Mann,  Secretary 
of  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education.  Boston:  William  B.  Fowle.  1845.  Most 
of  the  Lectures  embraced  in  this  volume  were  delivered  by  Mr.  Mann  before  conven- 
tions of  the  friends  of  education,  held  in  the  several  counties  of  Massachusetts  in  the 
autumn  of  each  year,  from  1838  to  1842.  The  lecture  which  follows  was  delivered  in 
1838,  to  prepare  the  public  mind  for  a  fair  trial  of  the  experiment  of  providing  means 
for  the  special  qualification  of  teachers  for  the  common  schools  of  the  State. 

t  Hon.  Edmund  Dwight,  of  Boston. 


160  MR.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838. 

honored  or  flattered  the  giver.  But  this  was  given  to  augment  the 
common  mass  of  intelligence,  and  to  promote  universal  culture;  it  was 
given  with  a  high  and  enlightened  disregard  of  all  local,  party,  per- 
sonal, or  sectional  views;  it  was  given  for  the  direct  benefit  of  all  the 
heart  and  all  the  mind,  extant,  or  to  be  extant,  in  our  beloved  Com- 
monwealth; and,  in  this  respect,  it  certainly  stands  out  almost,  if  not 
absolutely  alone,  both  in  the  amount  of  the  donation,  and  in  the  ele- 
vation of  the  motive  that  prompted  it.  I  will  not  tarnish  the  bright- 
ness of  this  deed  by  attempting  to  gild  it  with  praise.  One  of  the 
truest  and  most  impressive  sentences  ever  uttered  by  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  is,  however,  so  appropriate,  and  forces  itself  so  strongly  upon 
my  mind,  that  I  cannot  repress  its  utterance.  When  that  plain  and 
homely  Scotch  girl,  Jeannie  Deans, — the  highest  of  all  the  characters 
ever  conceived  by  that  gifted  author, — is  pleading  her  suit  before  the 
British  queen,  and  showing  herself  therein  to  be  ten  times  a  queen, — 
she  utters  the  sentiment  I  refer  to:  "But  when,"  says  she,  "the  hour 
of  trouble  comes  to  the  mind  or  to  the  body,  and  when  the  hour  of 
death  comes,  that  comes  to  high  and  low,  then  it  isna  what  we  hae 
dune  for  oursells,  but  what  we  hae  dune  for  others,  that  we  think 
on  maist  pleasantly." 

There  is,  then,  at  last,  on  the  part  of  the  government  of  Massa- 
chusetts, a  recognition  of  the  expediency  of  providing  means  for  the 
special  qualification  of  teachers  for  our  Common  Schools;  or,  at  least, 
of  submitting  that  question  to  a  fair  experiment.  Let  us  not,  how- 
ever, deceive  or  flatter  ourselves  with  the  belief,  that  such  an  opinion 
very  generally  prevails,  or  is  very  deeply  seated.  A  few,  and  those, 
as  we  believe,  best  qualified  to  judge,  hold  this  opinion  as  an  axiom. 
But  this  cannot  be  said  of  great  numbers;  and  it  requires  no  prophetic 
vision  to  forsee  that  any  plan  for  carrying  out  this  object,  however 
wisely  framed,  will  have  to  encounter  not  only  the  prejudices  of  the 
ignorant,  but  the  hostility  of  the  selfish. 

The  most  momentous  practical  questions  now  before  our  State  and 
country  are  these:  In  order  to  preserve  our  republican  institutions, 
must  not  out  Common  Schools  be  elevated  in  character  and  increased 
in  efficiency?  and,  in  order  to  bring  our  schools  up  to  the  point  of 
excellence  demanded  by  the  nature  of  our  institutions,  must  there  not 
be  a  special  course  of  study  and  training  to  qualify  teachers  for  their 
office?  No  other  worldly  interest  presents  any  question  comparable 
to  these  in  importance.  To  the  more  special  consideration  of  the 
latter, — namely,  whether  the  teachers  of  our  public  schools  require  a 
special  course  of  study  and  training  to  qualify  them  for  their  voca- 
tion,— I  solicit  your  attention,  during  the  residue  of  this  address. 

I  shall  not  here  insist  upon  any  particular  mode  of  preparation,  or 
of  preparation  in  any  particular  class  of  institutions, — whether  Normal 
Schools,  special  departments  in  academies,  colleges,  or  elsewhere, — 
to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  institutions.  What  I  insist  upon,  is,  not 
the  form,  but  the  substance. 

In  treating  this  subject,  duty  will  require  me  to  speak  of  errors 
and  deficiencies;  and  of  the  inadequate  conceptions  now  entertained 
of  the  true  office  and  mission  of  a  teacher.  This  is  a  painful  obliga- 
tion, and  in  discharging  it  I  am  sure  I  shall  not  be  misunderstood  by 
any  candid  and  intelligent  mind.  Toward  the  teachers  of  our  schools, 
— as  a  class, — I  certainly  possess  none  but  the  most  fraternal  feelings. 
Their  want  of  adequate  qualifications  is  the  want  of  the  times,  rather 
than  of  themselves.  Teachers,  heretofore,  have  only  been  partakers 
In  a  general  error, — an  error  in  which  you  and  I,  my  hearers,  have 
been  as  profoundly  lost  as  they.  Let  this  be  their  excuse  hitherto, 


MR.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838.  161 

and  let  the  Ignorance  of  the  past  be  winked  at;  but  the  best  service 
we  can  now  render  them,  is  to  take  this  excuse  away,  by  showing 
the  inadequacy  and  the  unsoundness  of  our  former  views.  Let  all  who 
shall  henceforth  strive  to  do  better,  stand  acquitted  for  past  delin- 
quencies; but  will  not  those  deserve  a  double  measure  of  condemna- 
tion who  shall  set  themselves  in  array  against  measures,  which  so 
many  wise  and  good  men  have  approved, — at  least  until  those  meas- 
ures have  been  fairly  tested?  When  the  tree  shall  have  been  planted 
long  enough  to  mature  its  fruit,  then  let  it  be  known  by  its  fruit. 

No  one  has  ever  supposed  that  an  individual  could  build  up  a 
material  temple,  and  give  it  strength,  and  convenience,  and  fair  pro- 
portions, without  first  mastering  the  architectural  art;  but  we  have 
employed  thousands  of  teachers  for  our  children,  to  build  up  the 
Immortal  Temple  of  the  Spirit,  who  have  never  given  to  this  divine, 
educational  art,  a  day  nor  an  hour  of  prelimnary  study  or  attention. 
How  often  have  we  sneered  at  Dogberry  in  the  play,  because  he  holds 
that  "to  read  and  write  comes  by  nature;"  when  we  ourselves  have 
undertaken  to  teach,  or  have  employed  teachers,  whose  only  fitness 
for  giving  instruction,  not  only  in  reading  and  writing,  but  in  all  other 
things,  has  come  by  nature,  if  it  has  come  at  all;  that  is,  in  exact 
accordance  with  Dogberry's  philosophy. 

In  maintaining  the  affirmative  of  this  question, — namely,  that  all 
teachers  do  require  a  special  course  of  study  and  training,  to  qualify 
them  for  their  profession, — I  will  not  higgle  with  my  adversary  in 
adjusting  preliminaries.  He  may  be  the  disciple  of  any  school  in 
metaphysics,  and  he  may  hold  what  faith  he  pleases,  respecting  the 
mind's  nature  and  essence.  Be  he  spiritualist  or  materialist,  it  here 
matters  not, — nay,  though  he  should  deny  that  there  is  any  such 
substance  as  mind  or  spirit  at  all,  I  will  not  stop  to  dispute  that  point 
with  him,  preferring  rather  to  imitate  the  example  of  those  old 
knights  of  the  tournament,  who  felt  such  confidence  in  the  justness  of 
their  cause,  that  they  gave  their  adversaries  the  advantage  of  sun 
and  wind.  For,  whatever  the  mind  may  be,  in  its  inscrutable  nature 
or  essence,  or  whether  there  be  any  such  thing  as  mind  or  spirit  at 
all,  properly  so  called,  this  we  have  seen  and  do  know,  that  there 
come  beings  into  this  world,  with  every  incoming  generation  of  chil- 
dren, who,  although  at  first  so  ignorant,  helpless,  speechless, — so 
incapable  of  all  motion,  upright  or  rotary, — that  we  can  hardly  persuade 
ourselves  they  have  not  lost  their  way,  and  come,  by  mistake,  into 
the  wrong  world;  yet,  after  a  few  swift  years  have  passed  away,  we 
see  thousands  of  these  same  ignorant  and  helpless  beings,  expiating 
horrible  offenses  in  prison-cells,  or  dashing  themselves  to  death  against 
the  bars  of  a  maniac's  cage; — others  of  them,  we  see,  holding  "colloquy 
sublime,"  in  halls  where  a  nation's  fate  is  arbitrated,  or  solving  some 
of  the  mightiest  problems  that  belong  to  this  wonderful  universe; — 
and  others  still,  there  are,  who,  by  daily  and  nightly  contemplation 
of  the  laws  of  God,  have  kindled  that  fire  of  divine  truth  within  their 
bosoms,  by  which  they  become  those  moral  luminaries  whose  light 
shineth  from  one  part  of  the  heavens  unto  the  other.  And  this  amaz- 
ing change  in  these  feeble  and  helpless  creatures, — this  transfigura- 
tion of  them  for  good  or  for  evil, — is  wrought  by  laws  of  organization 
and  of  increase,  as  certain  in  their  operation,  and  as  infallible  in 
their  results,  as  those  by  which  the  skillful  gardener  substitutes 
flowers,  and  delicious  fruits,  and  healing  herbs,  for  briers,  and  thorns, 
and  poisonous  plants.  And  as  we  hold  the  gardener  responsible  for 
the  productions  of  his  garden,  so  is  the  community  responsible  for 
the  general  character  and  conduct  of  its  children. 

K 


162  MB.  MANN'S  LECTUBE  IN  1838. 

Some,  indeed,  maintain, — erroneously  as  we  believe, — that  a  differ- 
ence in  education  is  the  sole  cause  of  all  the  differences  existing 
among  men.  They  hold  that  all  persons  come  into  the  world  just 
alike  in  disposition  and  capacity,  though  they  go  through  it  and  out 
of  it  so  amazingly  diverse.  They  hold,  in  short,  that  if  any  two  men 
had  changed  cradles,  they  would  have  changed  characters  and  epi- 
taphs;— that,  not  only  does  the  same  quantity  of  substance  or  essence 
go  to  the  constitution  of  every  human  mind,  but  that  all  minds  are 
of  the  same  quality  also, — all  having  the  same  powers,  and  bearing, 
originally,  the  same  image  and  superscription,  like  so  many  half- 
dollars  struck  at  the  government  mint. 

But  deeply  as  education  goes  to  the  core  of  the  heart  and  the 
marrow  of  the  bones,  we  do  not  claim  for  it  any  such  prerogative. 
There  are  certain  substructures  of  temperament  and  disposition, 
which  education  finds,  at  the  beginning  of  its  work,  and  which  it  can 
never  wholly  annul.  Nor  does  it  comport  with  the  endless  variety 
and  beauty  manifested  in  all  other  parts  of  the  Creator's  works,  to 
suppose  that  he  made  all  ears  and  eyes  to  be  delighted  with  the  same 
tunes  and  colors;  or  provided  so  good  an  excuse  for  plagiarism,  as 
that  all  minds  were  made  to  think  the  same  thoughts.  This  inherent 
and  original  diversity,  however,  only  increases  the  difficulty  of  edu- 
cation, and  gives  additional  force  to  the  argument  for  previous  prepa- 
ration; for,  were  it  true  that  all  children  are  born  just  alike,  in  dis- 
position and  capacity,  the  only  labor  would  be  to  discover  the  right 
method  for  educating  a  single  child,  and  to  stereotype  it  for  all  the 
rest. 

This,  however,  we  must  concede  to  those  who  affirm  the  original 
equality  and  exact  similitude  of  all  minds; — namely,  that  all  minds 
have  the  same  elementary  or  constituent  faculties.  This  is  all  that 
we  mean  when  we  say  that  human  nature  is  every  where  the  same. 
This  is,  in  part,  what  the  Scriptures  mean  when  they  say,  "God  hath 
made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men."  The  contrasts  among  men 
result,  not  from  the  possession  of  a  different  number  of  original 
faculties,  but  from  possessing  the  same  faculties,  in  different  pro- 
portions, and  in  different  degrees  of  activity.  The  civilized  men  of 
the  present  day,  have  neither  more  nor  less  faculties,  in  number,  than 
their  barbarian  ancestors  had.  If  so,  it  would  be  interesting  to  ascer- 
tain about  what  year,  or  century,  a  new  good  faculty  was  given  to 
the  race,  or  an  old  bad  one  was  taken  away.  An  assembly  of  civilized 
men,  on  this  side  of  the  globe,  convening  to  devise  measures  for 
diminishing  the  number  of  capital  crimes,  and  thus  to  reduce  the 
number  of  capital  crimes,  and  thus  to  reduce  the  number  of  capital 
punishments,  were  born  with  the  same  number  and  kind  of  faculties, 
— though  doubtless  differing  greatly  in  proportion  and  in  activity, — 
with  a  company  of  Battas  islanders,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
globe,  who,  perhaps  at  the  same  time,  may  be  going  to  attend  the 
holiday  rites  of  a  public  execution,  and,  as  is  their  wont  to  dine  on  the 
criminal.  As  each  human  face  has  the  same  number  of  features,  each 
human  body  the  same  number  of  limbs,  muscles,  organs,  &c.,  so  each 
human  soul  has  the  same  capacities  of  Reason,  Conscience,  Hope, 
Fear,  Love,  Self-love,  &c.  The  differences  lie  in  the  relative  strength 
and  supremacy  of  these  powers.  The  human  eye  is  composed  of  about 
twenty  distinct  parts  or  pieces;  yet  these  constituent  parts  are  so 
differently  arranged  that  one  man  is  far-sighted,  another  near-sighted. 
When  an  oculist  has  mastered  a  knowledge  of  one  eye,  he  knows  the 
general  plan  upon  which  all  eyes  have  been  formed;  but  he  must 
still  learn  the  peculiarities  of  each,  or,  in  his  practice,  he  will  ruin 


MB.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838.  163 

all  he  touches.*  When  a  surgeon,  or  an  assassin,  knows  where  one 
man's  heart  is,  he  knows,  substantially,  where  the  hearts  of  all  other 
men  may  be  found.  And  so  of  the  mind  and  its  faculties.  It  is 
because  of  this  community  of  original  endowments  that  all  the  great 
works  of  nature,  and  art,  and  science,  address  a  common  suceptibility 
or  capacity  existing  in  all  minds.  It  is  because  of  this  kindred 
nature  that  the  same  earth  is  given  to  us  all  as  a  common 
residence.  The  possession  by  each  of  his  complement  of  powers 
and  susceptibilities,  confers  the  common  nature,  while  the  differ- 
ent portions  or  degrees  in  which  they  exist,  and  the  predominance 
of  one  or  a  few  over  the  others,  break  us  up  into  moral  and 
intellectual  classes.  It  is  impossible  to  vindicate  the  propriety  of 
making  or  of  carrying  a  Revelation  to  the  whole  human  race,  unless 
that  race  has  common  capacities  and  wants  to  which  the  revelation 
is  adapted.  And  hence  we  learn  the  appalling  truth, — a  truth  which 
should  strike  "loud  on  the  heart  as  thunder  on  the  ear," — that  every 
child  born  into  this  world  has  tendencies  and  susceptibilities  pointing 
to  the  furthest  extremes  of  good  and  evil.  Each  one  has  the  capacity  of 
immeasurable  virtue  or  vice.  As  each  body  has  an  immensity  of  natu- 
ral space  open  all  around  it,  so  each  spirit,  when  waked  into  life,  has  an 
immensity  of  moral  space  open  all  around  it.  Each  soul  has  a  pinion 
by  which  it  may  soar  to  the  highest  empyrean,  or  swoop  downward 
to  the  Tartarean  abyss.  In  the  feeblest  voice  of  infancy,  there  is  a 
tone  which  can  be  made  to  pour  a  sweeter  melody  into  the  symphonies 
of  angels,  or  thunder  a  harsher  discord  through  the  blasphemies  of 
demons.  To  plume  these  wings  for  an  upper  or  a  nether  flight;  to 
lead  these  voices  forth  into  harmony  or  dissonance;  to  woo  these 
beings  to  go  where  they  should  go,  and  to  be  what  they  should  be, — 
does  it,  or  does  it  not,  my  friends,  require  some  knowledge,  some 
anxious  forethought,  some  enlightening  preparation? 

You  must  pardon  me,  if  on  this  subject  I  speak  to  you  with  great 
plainness;  and  you  must  allow  me  to  appeal  directly  to  your  own 
course  of  conduct  in  other  things.  You  have  property  to  be  preserved 
for  the  support  of  your  children  while  you  live,  or,  when  you  die,  for 
their  patrimony;  you  have  health  and  life  to  be  guarded  and  con- 
tinued, that  they  may  not  be  bereaved  of  their  natural  protectors;  — 
and  you  have  the  children  themselves,  with  their  unbounded,  un- 
fathomable capacities  of  happiness  and  misery.  Now,  in  respect  to 
your  property,  what  is  it  your  wont  to  do,  when  a  young  lawyer  comes 
into  the  village,  erects  his  sign,  and  (the  most  unexclusive  of  men) 
gives  to  the  public  a  general  invitation?  Though  he  has  a  diploma 
from  a  college,  and  the  solemn  approval  of  bench  and  bar,  yet  how 
warily  do  the  public  approach  him.  How  much  he  is  reconnoitered 
before  he  is  retained.  How  many  premeditated  plans  are  laid  to  ap- 
pear to  meet  him  accidentally,  to  talk  over  indifferent  subjects  with 
him, — the  weather,  the  crops,  or  Congressional  matters, — in  order  to 
measure  him,  and  probe  him,  and  see  if  there  be  any  hopefulness  in 
him.  And  should  all  things  promise  favorably,  the  young  attorney  is 
intrusted,  in  the  first  instance,  only  with  some  outlawed  note,  or 
some  doubtful  account,  before  a  justice  of  the  peace.  No  man  ever 
thinks  of  trusting  a  case  which  involves  the  old  homestead,  to  his 
inexperienced  hands.  He  would  as  soon  set  fire  to  it. 

*  I  have  heard  that  distinguished  surgeon,  Doct.  John  C.  Warren,  of  Boston,  relate 
the  following  anecdote,  which  happened  to  him  in  London : — Being  invited  to  witness 
a  very  difficult  operation  upon  the  human  eye,  by  a  celebrated  English  oculist,  he 
was  so  much  struck  by  the  skill  and  science  •which  were  exhibited  by  the  operator,  that 
he  sought  a  private  interview  with  him,  to  inquire  by  what  means  he  had  become  BO 
accomplished  a  master  of  his  art.  "Sir,"  said  the  oculist,  "I  spoiled  a  hat-full  of  eyes 
to  learn  it."  Thus  it  is  with  incompetent  teachers ;  they  may  spoil  schoolrooms-full 
of  children  to  learn  how  to  teach, — and  perhaps  may  not  always  learn  even  then. 


164  ME.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838. 

So,  too,  of  a  young  physician.  No  matter  from  what  medical  college, 
home  or  foreign,  he  may  bring  his  credentials.  From  day  to  day  the 
neighbors  watch  him  without  seeming  to  look  at  him.  In  good-wives' 
parties,  the  question  is  confidentially  discussed,  whether,  in  a  case 
of  exigency,  it  would  be  safe  to  send  for  him.  And  when,  at  last,  he 
is  gladdened  with  a  call,  it  is  only  to  look  at  some  surface  ailment, 
or  to  pother  a  little  about  the  extremities.  Nobody  allows  him  to 
lay  his  unpracticed  hand  upon  the  vitals.  Now  this  common  senti- 
ment,— this  common  practice  of  mankind, — is  only  the  instinctive  dic- 
tate of  prudence.  It  is  only  a  tacit  recognition  of  a  truth  felt  by  all 
sensible  men,  that  there  are  a  thousand  ways  to  do  a  thing  wrong, 
but  only  one  way  to  do  it  right.  And  if  it  be  but  reasonable  to 
exercise  such  vigilance  and  caution,  in  selecting  a  healer  for  our 
bodies  which  perish,  or  a  counselor  for  our  worldly  estates,  who  shall 
assign  limits  to  the  circumspection  and  fidelity  with  which  the  teach- 
ers of  our  children  should  be  chosen,  who,  in  the  space  of  a  few 
short  years,  or  even  months,  will  determine,  as  by  a  sort  of  predesti- 
nation, upon  so  much  of  their  future  fortunes  and  destiny? 

Again:  it  is  the  universal  sense  of  mankind,  that  skill  and  facility, 
in  all  other  things,  depend  upon  study  and  practice.  We  always  de- 
mand more,  where  opportunities  have  been  greater.  We  stamp  a 
man  with  inferiority,  though  he  does  ten  times  better  than  another, 
if  he  has  had  twenty  times  the  advantages.  We  know  that  a  skillful 
navigator  will  carry  a  vessel  through  perilous  straits,  in  a  gale  of 
wind,  and  save  cargo  and  lives,  while  an  ignorant  one  will  wreck  both, 
In  a  broad  channel.  With  what  a  song  of  delight  we  have  all  wit- 
nessed, how  easily  and  surely  that  wise  and  good  man,  at  the  head 
of  a  great  institution  in  our  own  State,  will  tame  the  ferocity  of  the 
insane;  and  how,  when  each  faculty  of  a  fiery  spirit  bursts  away 
like  an  affrighted  steed  from  its  path,  this  mighty  tamer  of  madmen 
will  temper  and  quell  their  wild  impetuosity  and  restore  them  to  the 
guidance  of  reason.  Nay,  the  great  moral  healer  can  do  this,  not  to 
one  only,  but  to  hundreds,  at  a  time;  while,  even  in  a  far  shorter 
period  than  he  asks  to  accomplish  such  a  wonderful  work,  an  ignorant 
and  passionate  teacher  will  turn  a  hundred  gentle,  confiding  spirits 
into  rebels  and  anarchists.  And,  my  hearers,  we  recognize  the  ex- 
istence of  these  facts,  we  apply  these  obvious  principles,  to  every 
thing  but  to  the  education  of  our  children. 

Why  cannot  we  derive  instruction  even  from  the  folly  of  those 
wandering  showmen  who  spend  a  life  in  teaching  brute  animals  to 
perform  wonderful  feats?  We  have  all  seen,  or  at  least  we  have  all 
heard  of,  some  learned  horse,  or  learned  pig,  or  learned  dog.  Though 
the  superiority  over  their  fellows,  possessed  by  these  brute  prodigies, 
may  have  been  owing,  in  some  degree,  to  the  possession  of  greater 
natural  parts,  yet  it  must  be  mainly  attributed  to  the  higher  compe- 
tency of  their  instructor.  Their  teacher  had  acquired  a  deeper  insight 
into  their  natures;  his  sagacious  practice  had  discovered  the  means 
by  which  their  talents  could  be  unfolded  and  brought  out.  However 
unworthy  and  even  contemptible,  therefore,  the  mere  trainer  of  a  dog 
may  be,  yet  he  illustrates  a  great  principle.  By  showing  us  the 
superiority  of  a  well-trained  dog,  he  shows  what  might  be  the  super- 
iority of  a  well-trained  child.  He  shows  us  that  higher  acquisitions, — 
what  may  be  called  academical  attainments, — in  a  few  favored  indi- 
viduals of  the  canine  race,  are  not  so  much  the  results  of  a  more 
brilliant  genius  on  the  part  of  the  dog-pupil,  as  they  are  the  natural 
reward  and  consequence  of  his  enjoying  the  instructions  of  a  pro- 
fessor who  has  concentrated  all  his  energies  upon  dog-teaching. 


MR.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838.  165 

Surely  it  will  not  be  denied  that  a  workman  should  understand  two 
things  in  regard  to  the  subject-matter  of  his  work: — first,  its  natural 
properties,  qualities,  and  powers;  and  secondly,  the  means  of  modi- 
fying and  regulating  them,  with  a  view  to  improvement.  In  relation 
to  the  mechanic  arts,  this  is  admitted  by  all.  Every  body  knows 
that  the  strength  of  the  blow  must  be  adjusted  to  the  malleability  of 
the  metal.  It  will  not  do  to  strike  glass  and  flint  either  with  the 
same  force  or  with  the  same  implements;  and  the  proper  instrument 
will  never  be  selected  by  a  person  ignorant  of  the  purpose  to  be 
effected  by  its  use.  If  a  man  working  on  wood  mistakes  it  for  iron, 
and  attempts  to  soften  it  in  the  fire,  his  product  is — ashes.  And  so 
if  a  teacher  supposes  a  child  to  have  but  one  tendency  and  one  adap- 
tation when  he  has  many; — if  a  teacher  treats  a  child  as  though  his 
nature  were  wholly  animal,  or  wholly  intellectual,  or  wholly  moral 
and  religious,  he  disfigures  and  multilates  the  nature  of  that  child,  and 
wrenches  his  whole  structure  into  deformity. 

The  being,  Man,  is  more  complex  and  diversified  in  constitution,  and 
more  variously  endowed  in  faculties,  than  any  other  earthly  work  of 
the  Creator.  It  is  in  this  assemblage  of  powers  and  perogatives  that 
his  strength  and  majesty  reside.  They  constitute  his  sovereignty  and 
lordship  over  the  creation  around  him.  By  our  bodily  organization  we 
are  adapted  to  the  material  world  in  which  we  are  placed; — our  eye 
to  the  light,  which  makes  known  to  us  every  change  in  the  form, 
motion,  color,  position,  of  all  objects  within  visual  range; — our  ear 
and  tongue  to  the  air,  which  flows  around  us  in  silence,  yet  is  for- 
ever ready  to  be  waked  into  voice  and  music; — our  hand  to  all  the 
cunning  works  of  art  which  subserve  utility  or  embellishment.  Still 
more  wonderfully  does  the  spiritual  nature  of  man  befit  his  spiritual 
relations.  Whatever  there  is  of  law,  of  order,  of  duty,  in  the  works 
of  God,  or  in  the  progressive  conditions  of  the  race,  all  have  their 
spiritual  counterparts  within  him.  By  his  perceptive  and  intellectual 
faculties  he  learns  the  properties  of  created  things,  and  discovers 
the  laws  by  which  they  are  governed.  By  tracing  the  relation  be- 
tween causes  and  effects,  he  acquires  a  kind  of  prophetic  vision  and 
power;  for,  by  conforming  to  the  changing  laws  of  Nature,  he  en- 
lists her  in  his  service,  and  she  works  with  him  in  fulfilling  his  pre- 
dictions. Regarded  as  an  individual,  and  as  a  member  of  a  race 
which  reproduces  itself  and  passes  away,  his  lower  propensities, — 
those  which  he  holds  in  common  with  the  brutes, — are  the  instincts 
and  means  to  preserve  himself  and  to  perpetuate  his  kind;  while  by 
his  tastes,  and  by  the  social,  moral,  and  religious  sentiments  of  which 
he  is  capable,  he  is  attuned  to  all  the  beauties  and  sublimities  of  cre- 
ation, his  heart  is  made  responsive  to  all  the  delights  of  friendship 
and  domestic  affection  and  he  is  invited  to  hold  that  spiritual  inter- 
course with  his  Maker,  which  at  once  strengthens  and  enraptures. 

Now  the  voice  of  God  and  of  Nature  declares  audibly  which  of 
these  various  powers  within  us  are  to  command,  and  which  are  to 
obey;  and  with  which,  in  every  questionable  case,  resides  the  ulti- 
mate arbitrament.  Even  the  lowest  propensities  are  not  to  be  wholly 
extirpated.  Within  the  bounds  prescribed  by  the  social  and  the 
divine  law,  they  have  their  rightful  claims.  But  the  moral  and  the 
religious  sentiments, — Benevolence,  Conscience,  Reverence  for  the 
All-creating  and  All-bestowing  Power, — these  have  the  prerogative  of 
supremacy  and  absolute  dominion.  These  are  to  walk  the  halls  of 
the  soul,  like  a  god,  nor  suffer  rebellion  to  live  under  their  eye.  Yet 
how  easy  for  this  many-gifted  being  to  fall, — more  easy,  indeed,  be- 
cause of  his  many  gifts.  Some  subject-faculty,  some  subordinate 
power,  in  the  spiritual  realm,  unfortunately  inflamed,  or, — what  is 
far  more  common, — unwisely  stimulated  by  an  erroneous  education, 


166  MB.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838. 

grows  importunate,  exorbitant,  aggrandizes  itself,  encroaches  upon 
its  fellow-faculties,  until,  at  last,  obtaining  the  mastery,  it  subverts 
the  moral  order  of  the  soul,  and  wages  its  parricidal  war  against 
the  sovereignty  of  consience  within,  and  the  laws  of  society  and  of 
Heaven  without.  And  how  unspeakably  dreadful  are  the  retributions 
which  come  in  the  train  of  these  remorseless  usurpers,  when  they 
obtain  dominion  over  the  soul!  Take,  for  instance,  the  earliest-de- 
veloped, the  most  purely  selfish  and  animal  appetite  that  belongs 
to  us, — that  for  nourishing  beverage.  It  is  the  first  which  demands 
gratification  after  birth.  Subjected  to  the  laws  of  temperance,  it 
will  retain  its  zest,  fresh  and  genial,  for  threescore  years  and  ten, 
and  it  affords  the  last  corporal  solace  upon  earth  to  the  parched 
lips  of  the  dying  man.  Yet,  if  the  possessor  of  this  same  pleasure- 
giving  appetite  shall  be  incited  shall  be  incited,  either  by  examples 
of  inordinate  indulgence,  or  by  festive  songs  in  praise  of  the  vine 
and  the  wine-cup,  to  inflame  it,  and  to  feed  its  deceitful  fires,  though 
but  for  the  space  of  a  few  short  years,  then  the  spell  of  the  sorcerer 
will  be  upon  him;  and,  day  by  day,  he  will  go  and  cast  himself  into 
the  fiery  furnace  which  he  has  kindled; — nor  himself,  the  pitiable 
victim,  alone,  but  he  will  seize  upon  parents  and  wife  and  his  group 
of  innocent  children,  and  plunge  with  them  all  into  the  seething  hell 
of  intemperance. 

So  there  is,  in  human  nature,  an  innate  desire  of  acquiring  property, 
— of  owning  something, — of  using  the  possessive  my  and  mine.  Within 
proper  limits,  this  instinct  is  laudably  indulged.  Its  success  affords  a 
pleasure  in  which  reason  can  take  a  part.  It  stimulates  and  strength- 
ens many  other  faculties.  It  makes  us  thoughtful  and  fore-thoughtful. 
It  is  the  parent  of  industry  and  frugality, — and  industry  and  frugality, 
as  we  all  know,  are  blood-relations  to  the  whole  family  of  the  virtues. 
But  to  the  eye  and  heart  of  one  in  whom  this  love  of  acquisition  has 
become  absorbing  and  insane,  all  the  diversified  substances  in  crea- 
tion are  reduced  to  two  classes, — that  which  is  gold,  and  that  which  is 
not; — all  the  works  of  Nature  are  valued  or  despised,  and  the  laws 
and  institutions  of  society  upheld  or  asasiled,  as  they  are  supposed  to 
be  favorable  or  unfavorable  to  the  acquisition  of  wealth.  Whether  at 
home  or  abroad,  in  the  festive  circle  or  in  the  funeral  train;  whether 
in  hearing  the  fervid  and  thrilling  appeals  of  the  sanctuary,  or  the 
pathos  of  civic  eloquence,  one  idea  alone, —  that  of  money,  money, 
money, — holds  possession  of  the  miser's  soul;  its  voice  rings  forever 
in  his  ear;  and  were  he  in  the  garden  of  Eden, — its  beauty,  and  music, 
and  perfume  suffusing  all  his  senses, — his  only  thought  would  be,  how 
much  money  it  would  bring!  Such  mischief  comes  from  giving  su- 
premacy to  a  subordinate,  though  an  essential  and  highly  useful  facul- 
ty. This  mischief,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  parents  and  teachers 
produce,  when,  through  an  ignorance  of  the  natural  and  appropriate 
methods  of  inducing  children  to  study,  they  hire  them  to  learn  by  the 
offer  of  pecuniary  rewards. 

So,  too,  we  all  have  an  innate  love  for  whatever  is  beautiful; — a 
sentiment  that  yearns  for  higher  and  higher  degrees  of  perfection  in 
the  arts,  and  in  the  embellishments  of  life, — a  feeling  which  would 
prompt  us  to  "gild  refined  gold,  to  paint  the  lily,  to  throw  a  perfume 
on  the  violet,  and  add  another  hue  unto  the  rainbow."  Portions  of 
the  external  world  would  have  been  exquisitely  adapted  to  this  inborn 
love  of  the  beautiful,  by  Him  who  has  so  clothed  the  lilies  of  the  field 
that  they  outshine  Solomon  in  all  his  glory.  This  sentiment  may  be 
too  much  or  too  little  cultivated; — so  little  as  to  make  us  disdain  grat- 
ifications that  are  at  once  innocent  and  pure;  or  so  much  as  to  over- 
refine  us  into  a  hateful  fastidiousness.  In  the  works  of  nature,  beauty 
is  generally,  if  not  always,  subordinated  to  utility.  In  cases  of  in- 


MR.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838.  167 

compatibility,  gracefulness  yields  to  strength,  not  strength  to  grace- 
fulness. How  would  the  rising  sun  mock  us  with  his  splendor,  if  he 
brought  no  life  or  warmth  in  his  beams!  The  expectation  of  autumnal 
harvests  enhances  the  beauty  of  vernal  bloom.  These  manifestations 
of  nature  admonish  us  respecting  the  rang  which  ornament  or  ac- 
complishment should  hold  in  the  character  and  in  the  works  of  men; 
and,  of  course,  in  the  education  of  children.  Christ  referred  occasion- 
ally to  the  beauties  and  charms  of  nature,  but  dwelt  perpetually  upon 
the  obligations  of  duty  and  charity.  But  what  opposite  and  grievous 
offenses  are  committed  on  this  subject  by  different  portions  of  so- 
ciety! The  laboring  classes,  by  reason  of  early  parental  neglect  in 
cultivating  a  love  for  the  beautiful,  often  forego  pleasures  which  a 
bountiful  Providence  scatters  profusely  and  gratuitously  around  them, 
and  strews  beneath  their  feet;  while  there  is  a  class  of  persons  at 
the  other  extremity  of  the  social  scale,  who,  from  never  comprehend- 
ing the  immeasurably  value  of  the  objects  for  which  they  were  creat- 
ed, and  the  vast  beneficence  of  which,  from  their  wealth  and  station, 
they  are  capable,  actually  try  every  thing,  however  intrinsically  noble 
or  sacred,  by  some  conventional  law  of  fashion,  by  some  arbitrary  and 
capricious  standard  of  elegance.  In  European  society,  this  class  of 
"fashionables"  is  numerous.  They  have  their  imitators  here, — beings, 
who  are  not  men  and  women,  but  similitudes  only, — who  occupy  the 
vanishing  point  in  the  perspective  of  society,  where  all  that  is  true, 
or  noble,  or  etsimable  in  human  nature,  fades  away  into  nothing.  With 
this  class  it  is  no  matter  what  a  man  does  with  the  "Ten  Command- 
ments," provided  he  keeps  those  of  Lord  Chesterfield;  and,  in  their 
society,  Beau  Brummel  would  take  precedence  of  Dr.  Franklin. 

In  a  Report  lately  made  by  the  Agricultural  Commissioner  for  the 
survey  of  this  Commonwealth,  I  noticed  a  statement  respecting  some 
farmers  in  the  northern  part  of  the  county  of  Essex,  who  attempted 
to  raise  sun-flowers  for  the  purpose  of  extracting  oil  from  the  seeds. 
Twenty  bushels  to  the  acre  was  the  largest  crop  raised  by  any  one. 
Six  bushels  of  the  seed  yielded  but  one  gallon  of  oil,  worth,  in  the 
market,  one  dollar  and  seventeen  cents  only.  It  surely  required  no 
great  boldness  to  assert  that  the  experiment  did  not  succeed: — culti- 
vation, one  acre:  product,  three  gallons  of  oil;  value,  three  dollars 
and  fifty  cents! — which  would,  perhaps,  about  half  repay  the  cost  of 
labor.  Woe  to  the  farmer  who  seeks  for  independence  by  raising  run- 
flowers!  Ten  times  woe  to  the  parents  who  rear  up  sun-flower  sons 
or  sun-flower  daughters, — instead  of  sons  whose  hearts  glow  and 
burn  with  an  immortal  zeal  to  run  the  noble  career  of  usefulness  and 
virtue  which  a  happy  fortune  has  laid  open  before  them; — instead 
of  daughters  who  cherish  such  high  resolves  of  duty  as  lift  them  even 
above  an  enthusiasm  for  greatness,  into  those  loftier  and  serene  reg- 
ions where  greatness  comes  not  from  excitement,  but  is  native,  and 
ever-springing  and  ever-abiding.  Every  son,  whatever  may  be  his  ex- 
pectations as  to  fortune,  ought  to  be  so  educated  that  he  can  super- 
intend some  part  of  the  complicated  machinery  of  social  life;  and 
every  daughter  ought  to  be  so  educated  that  she  can  answer  the  claims 
of  humanity,  whether  those  claims  require  the  labor  of  the  head  or  the 
labor  of  the  hand.  Every  daughter  ought  to  be  so  trained  that  she 
can  bear,  with  dignity,  and  self-sustaining  ability,  those  revolutions  in 
Fortune's  wheel,  which  sometimes  bring  the  kitchen  up  and  turn  the 
parlor  down. 

Again;  we  have  a  natural,  spontaneous  feeling  of  self-respect,  an 
innate  sense  that,  simply  in  our  capacity  as  human  beings,  we  are 
worth  something,  and  entitled  to  some  consideration.  This  principle 
constitutes  the  interior  frame-work  of  some  of  the  virtues,  veiled,  in- 
deed, by  their  own  beautiful  covering,  but  still  necessary  in  order  to 


168  MR.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838. 

keep  them  in  an  erect  posture,  amidst  all  the  overbearing  currents 
and  forces  of  the  world.  Where  this  feeling  of  self-respect  exists  too 
weakly,  the  whole  character  becomes  limber,  flaccid,  impotent,  sinks 
under  the  menace  of  opposition,  and  can  be  frightened  out  of  any  thing 
or  into  any  thing.  On  the  other  hand,  when  this  propensity  aggrandizes 
itself,  and  becomes  swollen  and  deformed  with  pride,  and  conceit,  and 
intolerance,  it  is  a  far  more  offensive  nuisance  than  many  of  those 
which  the  law  authorizes  us  to  abate,  summarily,  by  force  and  arms. 
Our  political  institutions  are  a  rich  alluvium  for  the  growth  of  self- 
esteem;  for,  while  every  body  knows  that  there  are  the  greatest  differ- 
ences between  men  in  point  of  honesty  of  ability,  of  will  to  do  good 
and  to  promote  right,  yet  our  fundamental  laws, — and  rightly  too, — 
ordain  a  political  equality.  But  what  is  not  right  is,  that  the  political 
equality  is  the  fact  mainly  regarded,  while  tfaere  is  a  tendency  to  dis- 
regard the  intellectual  and  moral  inequalities.  And  thus  a  faculty, 
designed  to  subserve,  and  capable  of  subserving  the  greatest  good, 
engenders  a  low  ambition,  and  fills  the  land  with  the  war-whoop  of 
party  strife. 

These  are  specimens  only  of  a  long  list  of  original  tendencies  or 
attributes  of  the  human  mind,  from  a  more  full  enumeration  and  ex- 
position of  which,  I  must,  on  this  occasion,  refrain.  But  have  not  enough 
been  referred  to,  to  authorize  us  to  assert  the  general  doctrine,  that  ev- 
ery teacher  ought  to  have  some  notions,  clear,  definite,  and  comprehen- 
sive, of  the  manifold  powers, — the  various  nature, — of  the  beings  con- 
fided to  his  hands,  so  that  he  may  repress  the  redundancy  of  a  too 
luxuriant  growth,  and  nourish  the  feeble  with  his  fostering  care?  No 
idea  can  be  more  erroneous  than  that  children  go  to  school  to  learn 
the  rudiments  of  knowledge  only,  and  not  to  form  character.  The 
character  of  children  is  always  forming.  No  place,  no  companion  is 
without  an  influence  upon  it;  and  at  school  it  is  formed  more  rapidly 
than  any  where  else.  The  mere  fact  of  the  presence  of  so  many  chil- 
dren together,  puts  the  social  or  dissocial  nature  of  each  into  fervid 
action.  To  be  sent  to  school,  especially  in  the  country,  is  often  as 
great  an  event  in  a  child's  life,  as  it  is,  in  his  father's,  to  be  sent  to 
the  General  Court:  and  we  all  know  with  what  unwonted  force  all 
things  affect  the  mind,  in  new  places  and  under  new  circumstances. 
Every  child,  too,  when  he  first  goes  to  school,  understands  that  he 
is  put  upon  his  good  behavior;  and,  with  man  or  child,  it  is  a  very  de- 
cisive thing,  and  reaches  deep  into  character  and  far  into  futurity, 
when  put  upon  his  good  behavior,  to  prove  recreant.  Now,  teachers 
take  children  under  their  care,  as  it  were,  during  the  first  warm  days 
of  the  spring  of  life,  when  more  can  be  done  toward  directing  their 
growth  and  modifying  their  dispositions,  than  can  be  done  in  years, 
at  a  later  season  of  their  existence. 

Equally  indispensable  is  it,  that  every  teacher  should  know,  by  what 
means, — by  virtue  of  what  natural  laws, — the  human  powers  and  facul- 
ties are  strengthened  or  enfeebled.  There  is  a  principle  running 
through  every  mental  operation, — without  a  knowledge  of  which,  with- 
out a  knowledge  how  to  apply  which,  the  life  of  the  most  faithful 
teacher  will  be  only  a  succession  of  well-intentioned  errors.  The 
growth  or  decline  of  all  our  powers  depends  upon  a  steadfast  law. 
There  is  no  more  chance  in  the  processes  of  their  growth  or  decay 
than  there  is  in  the  Multiplication  Table.  They  grow  by  exercise,  and 
they  lose  tone  and  vigor  by  inaction.  All  the  faculties  have  their  re- 
lated objects,  and  they  grow  by  being  excited  to  action  through  the 
stimulus  or  instrumentality  of  those  objects.  Each  faculty,  too,  has 
its  own  set  or  class  of  related  objects;  and  the  classes  of  related  ob- 
jects differ  as  much  from  each  other  as  do  the  corresponding  facul- 
ties which  they  naturally  excite.  If  any  one  power  or  faculty,  there- 


MB.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838.  169 

fore,  is  to  be  strengthened,  so  as  to  perform  its  office  with  facility, 
precision,  and  dispatch,  that  identical  faculty, — not  any  other  one, — 
must  be  exercised.  It  does  not  strengthen  any  left  arm  to  exercise 
my  right;  and  this  is  just  as  true  of  the  powers  of  the  mind  as  of 
the  organs  of  the  body.  The  whole  pith  of  that  saying  of  Solomon, 
"Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,"  consists  in  this  principle, 
because  "to  train"  means  to  drill,  to  repeat,  to  do  the  same  thing  over 
and  over  again, — that  is,  to  exercise.  Solomon  does  not  say,  "Tell  a 
child  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart 
from  it."  Had  he  said  this,  we  could  refute  him  daily  by  ten  thousand 
facts.  Unfortunately,  education  among  us,  at  present,  consists  too 
much  in  telling,  not  in  training,  on  the  part  of  parents  and  teachers; 
and  of  course,  in  hearing,  not  in  doing,  on  the  part  of  children  and 
pupils.  The  blacksmith's  right  arm,  the  philosopher's  intellect,  the 
philanthropist's  benevolence,  all  grow  and  strengthen  according  to 
this  law  of  exercise.  The  farmer  works  solid  flesh  upon  his  cattle; 
the  pugilist  strikes  vigor  into  his  arms  and  breast;  the  foot-soldier 
marches  strength  into  his  limbs;  the  practical  man  thinks  quickness 
and  judgment  into  his  mind;  and  the  true  Christian  lives  his  prayers 
of  love  and  his  thoughts  of  mercy,  until  every  man  becomes  his  broth- 
er. Our  own  experience  and  observation  furnish  us  with  a  life-full  of 
evidence  attesting  this  principle.  How  did  our  feet  learn  to  walk, 
our  fingers  to  write,  our  organs  of  speech  to  utter  an  innumerable 
variety  of  sounds?  By  what  means  does  the  musician  pass  from  coarse 
discords  to  perfect  music, — from  hobbling  and  shambling  in  his  meas- 
ure, to  keeping  time  like  a  chronometer, — from  a  slow  and  timid  touch 
of  keys  or  chords,  to  such  celerity  of  movement,  that,  though  his  will 
sends  out  a  thousand  commands  in  a  minute,  his  nimble  fingers  obey 
them  all?  It  is  this  exercise,  this  repetition,  which  gives  to  jugglers 
their  marvelous  dexterity.  By  dint  of  practice,  their  motions  become 
quicker  than  our  eyesight,  and  thus  elude  inspection.  A  knowledge  of 
this  principle  solves  many  of  the  riddles  of  life,  by  showing  us  whence 
comes  the  domineering  strength  of  human  appetites  and  passions.  It 
comes  from  exercise, — from  a  long  indulgence  of  them  in  thought  and 
act, — until  the  offspring  of  sinful  desire  turn  back,  and  feast  upon  the 
vitals  of  the  wretch  who  nurtured  them.  It  is  this  which  makes  the 
miser  pant  and  raven  for  gain,  more  and  more,  just  in  proportion  to 
the  shortness  of  the  life  during  which  he  can  enjoy  it.  It  is  this  which 
sends  the  drunkard  to  pay  daily  tribute  to  his  own  executioner.  It 
is  this  which  scourges  back  the  gambler  to  the  hell  he  dreads. 

It  is  by  this  law  of  exercise  that  the  perceptive  and  reflective  in- 
tellect,— I  mean  the  powers  of  observing  and  judging, — are  strength- 
ened. If,  therefore,  in  the  education  of  the  child,  the  action  of  these 
powers  is  early  arrested;  if  his  whole  time  is  engrossed  and  his  whole 
energy  drawn  away,  by  other  things;  or,  if  he  is  not  supplied  with 
the  proper  objects  or  aparatus  on  which  these  faculties  can  exert 
themselves, — then  the  after-life  of  such  a  child  will  be  crowded  with 
practical  errors  and  misjudgments.  As  a  man,  his  impressions  of 
things  will  be  faint  and  fleeting;  he  will  never  be  able  to  describe 
an  object  as  he  saw  it,  nor  to  tell  a  story  as  he  heard  it.  No  hand- 
craftsman  or  mechanic  ever  becomes  what  we  call  a  first-rate  work- 
man, until  after  innumerable  experiments  and  judgments, — that  is, 
repitions,  or  exercises.  And  the  rule  is  the  same  even  with  genius; 
artisan  or  artist,  he  must  practice  long  and  sedulously  upon  lines,  pro- 
portions, reliefs,  before  he  can  become  the  first  sculptor  of  the  age, 
or  the  first  bootmaker  in  the  city.  The  teacher,  then,  must  continue 
to  exercise  the  powers  of  his  pupils,  until  he  secures  accuracy  even 
in  the  minutest  things  he  teaches.  Every  child  can  and  should  learn 
to  judge,  almost  with  mathematical  exactness,  how  long  an  inch  is;  — 


170  MB.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838. 

no  matter  if  he  does  not  guess  within  a  foot  of  it  the  first  time.  Wheth- 
er the  story  of  Casper  Hauser  be  true  or  not,  it  has  verisimilitude,  and 
is  therefore  instructive.  It  warns  us  what  the  general  result  must  be, 
if,  by  a  non-presentation  of  their  related  objects,  the  faculties  of  a 
child  are  not  brought  into  exercise.  We  meet  with  persons  every  day 
who,  in  regard  to  some  one  or  more  of  the  faculties,  are  Casper  Haus- 
ers.  This  happens,  almost  universally,  not  through  any  natural  defect, 
but  because  parents  and  teachers  have  been  ignorant,  either  of  the 
powers  to  be  exercised,  or  of  the  related  objects  through  whose  in- 
strumentality they  can  be  excited  to  action. 

But  here  arises  a  demand  for  great  skill,  aptitude,  and  resources, 
on  the  part  of  the  teacher;  for,  by  continuing  to  exercise  the  same 
faculty,  I  do  not  mean  a  monotonous  repetition  of  the  same  action, 
nor  a  perpetual  presentation  of  the  same  object  or  idea.  Such  a 
course  would  soon  cloy  and  disgust,  and  thus  terminate  all  effort  in 
that  direction.  Would  a  child  ever  learn  to  dance,  if  there  were  but 
one  figure;  or  to  sing,  if  there  were  but  one  tune?  Nature,  science, 
art,  offer  a  boundless  variety  of  objects  and  processes,  adapted  to 
quicken  and  employ  each  of  the  faculties.  These  resources  the  teach- 
er should  have  at  his  command,  and  should  make  use  of  them,  in 
the  order,  and  for  the  period,  that  each  particular  case  may  require. 
Look  into  the  shops  of  our  ingenious  artisans  and  mechanics,  and  see 
their  shining  rows  of  tools, — hundreds  in  number, — but  each  adapted 
to  some  particular  process  in  their  curious  art.  Look  into  the  shop  or 
hut  of  a  savage,  an  Indian  mechanic,  and  you  will  find  his  chest  of 
tools  composed  of  a  single  jack-knife!  So  with  our  teachers.  Some 
of  them  have  apparatus,  diagram,  chart,  model;  they  have  anecdote, 
epigram,  narrative,  history,  by  which  to  illustrate  every  branch  of 
study,  and  to  fit  every  variety  of  disposition;  while  the  main  resource 
of  others,  for  all  studies,  for  all  ages,  and  for  all  dispositions,  is — the 
rod! 

Again:  a  child  must  not  only  be  exercised  into  correctness  of  ob- 
servation, comparison,  and  judgment,  but  into  accuracy  in  the  nar- 
ration or  description  of  what  he  has  seen,  heard,  thought,  or  felt,  so 
that,  whatever  thoughts,  emotions,  memories,  are  within  him,  he  can 
present  them  all  to  others  in  exact  and  luminous  words.  Dr.  Johnson 
said,  "Accustom  your  children  constantly  to  this:  if  a  thing  happened 
at  one  window,  and  they,  when  relating  it,  say  that  it  happened  at 
another,  do  not  let  it  pass,  but  instantly  check  them.  You  do  not 
know  where  deviation  from  the  truth  will  end."  Every  man  who  sees 
effects  in  causes,  will  fully  concur  with  the  Doctor  in  regard  to  the 
value  of  such  a  habit  of  accuracy  as  is  here  implied.  If,  in  the  nar- 
ration of  an  event,  or  in  the  recitation  of  a  lesson,  a  child  is  permitted 
to  begin  at  the  last  end  of  it,  and  to  scatter  the  middle  about  pro- 
miscuously, depend  upon  it,  if  that  child,  after  growing  up,  is  called 
into  court  as  a  witness,  somebody  will  suffer  in  fortune,  in  reputation, 
or  perhaps  in  life.  When  practicing  at  the  bar,  I  was  once  engaged 
in  an  important  case  of  slander,  where  the  whole  question  of  the  in- 
nocence or  guilt  of  the  defendant  turned  upon  the  point  whether,  at  a 
certain  time,  he  was  seen  out  of  one  window  or  out  of  another;  and 
the  stupid  witness  first  swore  that  it  was  one  window,  then  another 
window,  and  at  last,  thought  it  might  be  a  door;  and  doubtless,  he 
could  have  been  made  to  swear  that  he  saw  him  through  the  skylight. 
Would  you  appreciate  the  importance  of  accuracy,  in  observation  and 
statement,  take  one  of  those  cases  which  so  frequently  occur  in  our 
courts  of  law,  where  a  dozen  witnesses, — all  honest, — swear  one  way, 
and  another  dozen, — equally  honest, — counter-swear;  and  contrast  it 
with  a  case,  which  so  rarely  occurs,  where  a  witness,  whose  mind,  like 
a  copying  machine,  having  taken  an  exact  impression  of  whatever  it 


MR.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838.  171 

has  seen  or  heard,  attests  to  complicated  facts,  In  a  manner  so  orderly, 
luminous,  natural, — giving  to  each,  time,  locality,  proportion,  that 
when  he  has  finished,  every  auditor, — bench,  bar,  spectators, — all  feel 
as  though  they  had  been  personally  present  and  witnessed  the  whole 
transaction.  Now,  although  something  of  this  depends,  unquestion- 
ably, upon  soundness  in  physical  and  mental  organization,  yet  a  vast 
portion  of  it  is  referable  to  the  early  observation  or  neglect,  on  the 
part  of  teacher  or  parent,  of  the  law  we  are  considering. 

There  is  another  point,  too,  which  the  teacher  should  regard,  es- 
pecially where  only  a  small  portion  of  non-age  is  appropriated  to 
school  atendance.  In  exercising  the  facultfes  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  them,  the  greatest  amount  of  useful  knowledge  should 
be  commuflicated.  The  faculties  may  be  exercised  and  strengthened 
in  acquiring  useful  or  useless  knowledge.  A  farmer  or  a  stone-mason 
may  exercise  and  strengthen  the  muscles  of  his  body,  by  pitching  or 
rolling  timbers  of  stones  backward  and  forward;  but,  by  converting 
the  same  materials  into  a  house  or  a  fence,  he  may  at  once  gain 
strength  and  do  good.  Every  teacher,  at  the  same  time  that  he  exer- 
cises the  faculties  of  his  pupils,  ought  to  impart  the  greatest  amount 
of  valuable  knowledge;  and  he  should  always  be  above  the  temptation 
of  keeping  a  pupil  in  a  lower  department  of  study,  because  he  himself 
does  not  understand  the  higher;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  of  prematurely 
carrying  his  pupil  into  a  higher  department,  because  of  his  own  igno- 
rance of  the  lower.  Suppose  a  bright  boy,  for  instance,  to  be  studying 
arithmetic  and  geography,  at  school.  Now,  arithmetic  cannot  be  taught 
unless  it  is  understood;  but,  with  the  help  of  an  atlas,  and  a  text-book 
whose  margin  is  all  covered  with  questions,  the  business  of  teaching 
geography  may  be  set  up  on  a  very  slender  capital  of  knowledge.  And 
here  a  teacher  who  is  obliged  to  be  very  economical  of  his  arithmetic, 
would  be  tempted  to  keep  his  pupil  upon  all  the  small  town,  and  tiny 
rivers,  and  dots  of  islands  in  the  geography,  in  order  to  delay  him, 
and  gain  time, — like  the  officers  of  those  banks  whose  specie  runs  low, 
who  seek  to  pay  off  their  creditors  in  cents,  because  it  takes  so  long  to 
count  the  copper.  Every  teacher  ought  to  know  vastly  more  than  he  is 
required  to  teach,  so  that  he  may  be  furnished,  on  every  subject,  with 
copious  illustration  and  instructive  anecdote;  and  so  that  the  pupils 
may  be  disabused  of  the  notion,  they  are  so  apt  to  acquire,  that  they 
carry  all  knowledge  in  their  satchels.  Every  teacher  should  be  pos- 
sessed of  a  faculty  at  explanation, — a  tact  in  discerning  and  solving 
difficulties, — not  to  be  used  too  often,  for  then  it  would  supersede  the 
efforts  it  should  encourage, — but  when  it  is  used,  to  be  quick  and  sure 
as  a  telescope,  bringing  distant  objects  near,  and  making  obscure  ones 
distinct.  In  the  important,  but  grossly  neglected  and  abused  exercise 
of  reading,  for  instance,  every  new  fact,  every  new  idea,  is  news  to  the 
child;  and,  did  he  fully  understand  it,  he  would  be  as  eager  to  learn  it, 
as  we  are  to  learn  what  is  news  to  us.  But  how,  think  you,  should  we 
be  vexed,  if  our  news-bringer  spoke  every  third  word  in  a  foreign  lang- 
uage or  gave  us  only  a  Pennsylvania  newspaper  printed  in  German, 
when  we  wanted  to  know  how  their  votes  stood  in  an  election  for  Pres- 
ident? Whatever  words  a  child  does  not  understand,  in  his  reading  les- 
son, are,  to  him,  words  in  a  foreign  language;  and  they  must  be  trans- 
lated into  his  own  language  before  he  can  take  any  interest  in  them. 
But  if,  instead  of  being  translated  into  his  language,  they  are  left  un- 
noticed, or  are  translated  into  another  foreign  language  still, — that  is, 
into  other  words  or  phrases  of  which  he  is  ignorant, — then,  the  child, 
instead  of  delightful  and  instructive  ideas,  gets  empty  words,  mere 
sounds,  atmospheric  vibrations  only.  In  Dr.  Johnson's  Dictionary,  the 
word  "Network"  is  defined  to  be  "any  thing  reticulated  or  decussat- 
ed, with  interstices  between  the  intersections."  Now  who,  ignorant 


172  MR.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838. 

of  the  meaning  of  the  word  "net-work"  before,  would  understand  it 
any  better  by  being  told,  that  it  is  "any  thing  reticulated  or  decussat- 
ed, with  interstices  between  the  intersections?"  Nor  would  he  be  much 
enlightened  if,  on  looking  further,  he  found  that  the  same  author  had 
given  the  following  definitions  of  the  defining  words: — "reticulated," 
"formed  with  interstitial  vacuities;" — "decussated,"  "intersected  at 
acute  angles;" — "interstice,"  "space  between  one  thing  and  another;" 
— "intersection,"  "point  where  lines  cross  each  other."  If  this  is  not, 
as  Milton  says,  "dark  with  excess  of  bright,"  it  is,  at  least,  "darkness 
visible."  A  few  years  since,  a  geography  was  published  in  this  State, 
— the  preface  of  which  boasted  of  its  adaptation  to  the  capacities  of 
children, — and,  on  the  second  page,  there  was  this  definition  of  the 
words  "zenith  and  nadir:" — "zenith  and  nadir,  two  Arabic  words  im- 
porting their  own  signification."  A  few  years  since,  an  English  trav- 
eler and  book-maker,  who  called  himself  Thomas  Ashe,  Esq.,  visited 
the  Big  Bone  Licks,  in  Kentucky,  where  he  found  the  remains  of  the 
mammoth,  in  great  abundance,  and  whence  he  carried  away  several 
wagon-loads  of  bones.  In  describing  the  size  of  one  of  the  shoulder- 
blades  of  that  animal,  he  says,  it  "was  about  as  large  as  a  breakfast- 
table!"  A  child's  mind  may  be  dark  and  ignorant  before,  but,  under 
such  explanations  as  these,  darkness  will  coagulate,  and  ignorance  be 
sealed  in  hermetically.  Let  a  school  be  so  conducted  but  for  one  sea- 
son, and  all  life  will  be  abstracted  from  it;  and  it  will  become  the 
painful  duty  of  the  school  committee,  at  its  close  to  attend  a  post- 
mortem examination  of  the  children, — without  even  the  melancholy 
satisfaction  of  believing  that  science  will  be  benefited  by  the  horrors 
of  the  dissection. 

Every  teacher  should  be  competent  to  some  care  of  the  health  of 
his  pupils, — not  merely  for  the  purpose  of  regulating  the  temperature 
of  the  school-room,  and,  of  course,  the  transition  which  the  scholars 
must  undergo,  on  entering  or  leaving  it, — though  this  is  of  no  small 
importance, — but  so  that,  as  occasion  offers,  he  may  inculcate  a  knowl- 
edge of  some  of  the  leading  conditions  upon  which  health  and  life 
depend.  I  saw,  last  year,  in  the  public  town  school  of  Northampton, — 
under  the  care  of  Mr.  R.  M.  Hubbard, — more  than  a  hundred  boys, 
from  ten  or  eleven  to  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age,  who  pointed  out 
the  place  and  gave  the  name  of  all  the  principal  bones  in  their  bodies, 
as  well  as  an  anatomist  would  have  done;  who  explained  the  physio- 
Igical  processes  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  and  the  alimentation  of 
food,  and  described  the  putrefactive  action  of  ardent  spirits  upon  the 
delicate  tissues  of  the  stomach.  Now  such  boys  have  a  chance,  nay,  a 
certainty,  of  far  longer  life  and  far  better  health,  than  they  would 
otherwise  have;  and  as  they  grow  up,  they  will  be  far  less  easily 
tempted  to  emulate  either  of  the  three  cockney  graces, — Gin,  Swear- 
ing, and  Tobacco. 

But  I  must  pass  by  other  considerations,  respecting  the  growth  and 
invigoration  of  the  intellectual  faculties,  and  the  classes  of  subjects 
upon  which  they  should  be  employed.  I  hasten  to  the  consideration 
of  another  topic,  incalculably  more  important. 

The  moral  faculties  increase  or  decline,  strengthen  or  languish,  by 
the  same  law  of  exercise.  In  legislating  for  men,  actions  are  mainly 
regarded;  but  in  the  education  of  children,  motives  are  every  thing, 
MOTIVES  ABE  EVERY  THING.  All,  this  side  of  the  motive,  is  mere  mechan- 
ism, and  it  matters  not  whether  it  be  done  by  the  hand,  or  by  a  crank. 
There  was  profound  philosophy  in  the  old  theological  notion,  that  who- 
ever made  a  league  with  the  devil,  in  order  to  gratify  a  passion 
through  his  help,  became  the  devil's  property  afterward.  And  so, 
when  a  teacher  stimulates  a  child  to  the  performance  of  actions,  ex- 
ternally right,  by  appealing  to  motives  intrinsically  wrong,  he  sells 


MB.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838.  173 

that  child  into  bondage  to  the  wrong  motive.  Some  parents,  finding  a 
desire  of  luxurious  food  a  stronger  motive-power  in  their  children  than 
any  other,  accomplish  every  thing  through  its  means.  They  hire  them 
to  go  to  school  and  learn,  to  go  to  church  and  remember  the  text, 
and  to  behave  well  before  company,  by  a  promise  of  dainties.  Every 
repitition  of  this  enfeebles  the  sentiment  of  duty,  through  its  inaction, 
while  it  increases  the  desire  for  delicacies,  by  its  exercise;  and  as 
they  successively  come  into  competition  afterward,  the  virtue  will  be 
found  to  have  become  weaker,  and  the  appetite  stronger.  Such  par- 
ents touch  the  wrong  pair  of  nerves, — the  sensual  instead  of  the  moral, 
the  bestial  instead  of  the  divine.  These  springs  of  action  lie  at  the 
very  extremes  of  human  nature, — one  class  down  among  the  brutes, 
the  other  up  among  the  seraphim.  When  a  child,  so  educated,  becomes 
a  man,  and  circumstances  make  him  the  trustee  or  fiduciary  of  the 
friendless  and  unprotected,  and  he  robs  the  widow  and  orphan  to  ob- 
tain the  means  of  luxury  or  voluptuousness,  we  exclaim,  "Poor  human 
nature,"  and  are  ready  to  appoint  a  Fast;  when  the  truth  is,  he  was 
educated  to  be  a  knave  under  that  very  temptation.  Were  a  surgeon 
to  operate  upon  a  human  body  with  as  little  knowledge  of  his  subject 
as  this,  and  whip  round  his  double-edged  knife  where  the  vital  parts  lie 
thickest,  he  would  be  tried  for  manslaughter  at  the  next  court,  and 
deserve  conviction. 

Take  another  example; — and  I  instance  one  of  the  motive-forces 
which,  for  the  last  fifty  or  a  hundred  years,  has  been  mainly  relied  on, 
in  our  schools,  academies,  and  colleges,  as  the  stimulus  to  intellectual 
effort,  and  which  has  done  more  than  every  thing  else  to  cause  the 
madness  and  the  profligacy  of  those  political  and  social  rivalries  that 
now  convulse  the  land.  Let  us  take  a  child  who  has  only  a  moderate 
love  of  learning,  but  an  inordinate  passion  for  praise  and  place;  and 
we  therefore  allure  him  to  study  by  the  enticements  of  precedents  and 
applause.  If  he  will  surpass  all  his  fellows,  we  advance  him  to  the 
post,  and  signalize  him  with  the  badges  of  distinction,  and  never  suf- 
fer the  siren  of  flattery  to  cease  the  enchantments  of  her  song.  If  he 
ever  has  any  compassionate  misgivings  in  regard  to  the  effect  which 
his  own  promotion  may  have  upon  Ms  less  brilliant,  though  not  less 
meritorious  fellow-pupils,  then  we  seek  to  withdraw  his  thoughts  from 
this  virtuous  channel,  and  to  turn  them  to  the  selfish  contemplation 
of  his  own  brilliant  fortunes  in  future  years; — if  waking  conscience 
ever  whispers  in  his  ear,  that  that  pleasure  is  dishonorable  which 
gives  pain  to  the  innocent;  then  we  dazzle  him  with  the  gorgeous  vis- 
ion of  triumphal  honors  and  applauding  multitudes; — and  when,  in 
after-life,  this  victim  of  false  influences  deserts  a  righteous  cause  be- 
cause it  is  declining,  and  joins  an  unrighteous  one  because  it  is  pros- 
pering, and  sets  his  name  in  history's  pillory,  to  be  scoffed  and  jeered 
at  for  ages,  then  we  pour  out  lamentations,  in  prose  and  verse,  over 
the  moral  suicide!  And  yet,  by  such  a  course  of  education,  he  was 
prepared  beforehand,  like  a  skillfully  organized  machine,  to  prove  a 
traitor  and  an  apostle  at  that  very  conjuncture.  No  doubt,  a  college- 
boy  will  learn  more  Greek  and  Latin  if  it  is  generally  understood  that 
college-honors  are  to  be  mainly  awarded  for  proficiency  in  those 
languages;  but  what  care  we  though  a  man  can  speak  seven  languag- 
es, or  dreams  in  Hebrew  or  Sanscrit,  because  of  their  familiarity,  if  he 
has  never  learned  the  language  of  sympathy  for  human  suffering,  and 
is  deaf  when  the  voice  of  truth  and  duty  utters  their  holy  mandates! 
We  want  men  who  feel  a  sentiment,  a  consciousness  of  brotherhood 
for  the  whole  human  race.  We  want  men  who  will  instruct  the  ignor- 
ant,— not  delude  them;  who  will  succor  the  weak, — not  prey  upon 
them.  We  want  men  who  will  fly  to  the  moral  breach  when  the  wa- 
ters of  desolation  are  pouring  in,  and  who  will  stand  there,  and,  if 


174  MB.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838. 

need  be,  die  there, — applause  or  no  applause.  No  doubt,  every  one 
is  bound  to  take  watchful  care  of  that  portion  of  his  happiness  which 
rightfully  depends  upon  the  good  opinion  of  others;  but  before  any 
teacher  attempts  to  secure  the  proficiency  of  his  pupils  by  inflaming 
their  love  of  praise  and  place,  ought  he  not  to  appeal,  with  earnest 
and  prolonged  entreaty,  to  every  higher  sentiment?  and  even  then, 
should  he  fail  of  arousing  a  desire  for  improvement,  would  it  not  be 
better  to  abandon  a  pupil  to  mediocrity,  or  even  insignificance,  than 
to  insure  him  the  highest  eminence  by  awakening  an  unholy  ambition 
in  his  bosom?  It  is  infinitely  better  for  any  nation  to  supoprt  a  hos- 
pital for  fools,  than  to  have  a  parliament  or  a  congress  of  knaves. 

And  thus  it  is  with  all  moral  developments.  Ignorance  may  appeal 
to  a  wrong  motive,  and  thus  give  inordinate  strength  to  an  inferior 
sentiment,  while  honesty  in  quest  of  a  right  action.  For  a  few  times, 
perhaps  even  for  a  few  years,  the  appeal  may  be  successful;  but,  by- 
and-by,  the  inferior  sentiment,  or  propensity,  will  gain  predominance, 
and  usurp  the  throne,  and  rule  by  virtue  of  its  own  might. 

So,  too,  a  train  of  circumstances  may  be  prepared,  or  a  system  of 
government  adopted,  designed  by  their  author  for  good,  yet  productive 
of  a  venomous  brood  of  feelings.  Suppose  a  teacher  attempts  to  se- 
cure obedience  by  fear,  instead  of  love,  but  still  lacks  the  energy  or 
the  talent  requisite  for  success.  Forthwith,  and  from  the  necessity 
of  the  case,  there  are  two  hostile  parties  in  that  school, — the 
teacher  with  his  government  to  maintain,  the  pupils  with  their 
various  and  ever-springing  desires  to  gratify,  in  defiance  of  that  gov- 
ernment. Not  only  will  there  be  revolts  and  mutinies,  revolutions  and 
counter-revolutions  in  such  a  school,  but,  what  is  infinitely  worse,  be- 
cause of  its  meanness  and  baseness,  there  will  be  generated  a  moral 
pestilence  of  deception  and  trickery.  The  boldest  spirits, — those  al- 
ready too  bold  and  fool-hardy, — will  break  out  into  open  rebellion,  and 
thus  begin  to  qualify  themselves  to  become,  in  after-life,  violators  and 
contemners  of  the  laws  of  society;  while  those  who  are  already  prone  to 
concealment  and  perfidy,  will  sharpen  their  wits  for  deception;  they 
will  pretend  to  be  saying  or  doing  one  thing  when  saying  or  doing  an- 
other; they  will  sever  the  connection  between  tongue  and  heart;  they 
will  make  the  eyes,  the  face,  and  all  the  organs  that  contribute  to  the 
natural  language  belie  the  thoughts;  and,  in  fine,  will  turn  the  whole 
body  into  an  instrument  of  dissimulation.  Such  children,  under  such 
management,  are  every  day  preparing  to  become, — not  men  of  frank- 
ness, of  ingenuousness,  of  a  beautiful  transparency  of  disposition, — 
but  sappers  and  miners  of  character, — men  accomplishing  all  their 
ends  by  stratagem  and  ambush,  and  as  full  of  guile  as  the  first  ser- 
pent. Who  of  us  has  not  seen  some  individual  so  secretive  and  guile- 
ful as  to  be  impervious  to  second-sight,  or  even  to  the  boasted  vision 
of  animal  magnetism?  I  cannot  but  believe  that  most  of  those  hate- 
ful specimens  of  duplicity, — I  might  rather  say,  of  triplicity,  or  multi- 
plicity,— which  we  sometimes  encounter  in  society,  had  their  origin  in 
the  attempts  made  in  early  life  to  evade  commands  injudiciously  given, 
or  not  enforced  when  given.  If  any  thing  pertaining  to  the  education 
of  children  demands  discretion,  prudence,  wisdom,  it  is  the  commands 
which  we  impose  upon  them.  In  no  case  ought  a  command  ever  to  be 
issued  to  a  child  without  a  moral  certainty  either  that  it  will  be  volun- 
tarily obeyed,  or,  if  resisted,  that  it  can  be  enforced;  because  disobed- 
ience to  superiors,  who  stand  at  first  in  the  place  of  the  child's  con- 
science, prepares  the  way  for  disobedience  to  conscience  itself,  when 
that  faculty  is  developed.  Hence  the  necessity  of  discriminating,  as  a 
preliminary,  between  what  a  child  will  do,  or  can  be  made  to  do,  and 
the  contrary.  Hence,  when  disobedience  is  apprehended,  the  issue 
should  be  tried  rather  on  a  case  of  prohibition  than  of  injunction,  be- 


MR.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838.  175 

cause  a  child  can  be  deterred  when  he  cannot  be  compelled.  Hence, 
also,  the  necessity,  of  discriminating  between  what  a  child  has  the 
moral  power  to  do,  and  what  it  is  in  vain  to  expect  from  him.  Take 
a  child  who  has  been  brought  up  luxuriously,  indulgently,  selfishly, 
and  command  him,  in  the  first  instance,  to  incur  some  great  sacrifice 
for  a  mere  stranger,  or  for  some  object  which  he  neither  understands 
nor  values,  and  disobedience  is  as  certain  as  long  days  in  the  middle  of 
June; — I  mean  the  disobedience  of  the  spirit,  for  fear,  perhaps,  may 
secure  the  performance  of  the  outward  act.  Such  a  child  knows  noth- 
ing of  the  impulsions  of  conscience,  of  the  joyful  emotions  that  leap 
up  in  the  heart  after  the  performance  of  a  generous  deed;  and  it  is 
as  absurd  to  put  such  a  weight  of  self-denial  upon  his  benevolence, 
the  first  time,  as  it  would  be  to  put  a  camel's  load  upon  his  shoulders. 
Such  a  child  is  deeply  diseased.  He  is  a  moral  paralytic.  In  regard  to 
all  benevolent  exertion  and  sacrifice,  he  is  as  weak  as  an  infant;  and 
he  can  be  recovered  and  strengthened  to  virtuous  resolutions  only  by 
degrees.  What  should  we  think  of  a  physician,  who,  the  first  time  his 
patient  emerged  from  a  sick  chamber, — pallid,  emaciated,  tottering, — 
should  prescribe  a  match  at  wrestling,  or  the  running  of  races?  Yet 
this  would  be  only  a  parallel  to  the  mode  in  which  selfish  or  vicious 
children  are  often  treated;  nay,  some  persons  prepare  or  select  the 
most  difficult  cases, — cases  requiring  great  generosity  or  moral  intre- 
pedity, — by  which  to  break  new  beginners  into  the  work  of  benevol- 
ence or  duty.  If,  by  a  bad  education,  a  child  has  lost  all  generous  af- 
fections (for  no  child  is  born  without  them) ;  if  he  never  shares  his 
books  or  divides  his  luxuries  with  his  playmates;  if  he  hides  his  play- 
things at  the  approach  of  his  little  visitors;  if  his  eye  never  kindles  at 
the  recital  of  a  magnanimous  deed, — of  course  I  mean  one  the  mag- 
nanimity of  which  he  can  comprehend, — then  he  can  be  won  back  to 
kindness  and  justice  only  by  laborious  processes,  and  in  almost  im- 
perceptible degrees.  In  every  conversation  before  such  children,  gen- 
erosity and  self-denial  should  be  spoken  of  with  a  fervor  of  admiration 
and  a  glow  of  sympathy.  Stories  should  be  told  or  read  them,  in  which 
the  principal  actors  are  signalized  by  some  of  the  qualities  they  de- 
light in  (always  provided  that  no  element  of  evil  mingles  with  them) ; 
and  when  their  attachments  are  firmly  fastened  upon  hero  or  heroine, 
then  the  social,  amiable,  and  elevated  sentiments  which  are  deficient 
in  the  children  themselves,  should  be  developed  in  the  actors  or  char- 
acters whom  they  have  been  led  to  admire.  A  child  may  be  led  to 
admire  qualities  on  account  of  their  relationships  and  associations, 
when  he  would  be  indifferent  to  them  if  presented  separately.  If  a 
child  is  selfish,  the  occasion  for  kind  acts  should  be  prepared,  where 
all  the  accompaniments  are  agreeable.  As  the  sentiment  of  benevol- 
ence gains  tone  and  strength,  and  begins  to  realize  some  of  those  ex- 
quisite gratifications  which  God,  by  its  very  constitution,  has  annexed 
to  its  exercise,  then  let  the  collateral  inducements  be  weakened,  and 
the  experiments  assume  more  of  the  positive  character  of  virtue.  In 
this  way,  a  child  so  selfish  and  envious  as  to  be  grieved  even  at  the 
enjoyment  of  others,  may  be  won,  at  last,  to  seek  for  delight  in  offices 
of  humanity  and  self-sacrifice.  There  is  always  an  avenue  through 
which  a  child's  mind  can  be  reached;  the  failures  come  from  our  want 
of  perseverance  and  sagacity  in  seeking  it.  We  must  treat  moral 
more  as  we  treat  physical  distempers.  Week  after  week  the  mother 
sits  by  the  sick-bed,  and  welcomes  fasting  and  vigils;  her  watchful- 
ness surrounds  her  child,  and  with  all  the  means  and  appliances  that 
wealth  or  life  can  command,  she  strives  to  bar  up  every  avenue 
through  which  death  can  approach  him.  Did  mothers  care  as  much  for 
the  virtues  and  moral  habits  as  for  the  health  and  life  of  their  off- 
spring, would  they  not  be  as  patient,  as  hopeful,  and  as  long-suffering 


176  MR.  MANN'S  LECTURE  IN  1838. 

in  administering  antidote  and  remedy  to  a  child  who  is  morally,  as 
to  one  who  is  physically,  diseased? 

Is  it  not  in  the  way  above  described, — after  a  slowly  brightening  twi- 
light of  weeks,  perhaps  of  months, — that  the  oculist,  at  last,  lets  in  the 
light  of  the  meridan  sun  upon  the  couched  eye?  Is  it  not  in  this  way, 
that  the  convalescent  of  a  fevered  bed  advances,  from  a  measured  pit- 
tance of  the  weakest  nutrition,  to  that  audacious  health  which  spurns 
at  all  restraints  upon  appetite,  whether  as  to  quantity  or  quality?  For 
these  healings  of  the  diseased  eye  or  body,  we  demand  the  profession- 
al skill  and  science  of  men,  educated  and  trained  to  the  work;  nay,  if 
any  impostor  or  empiric  wantonly  tampers  with  eye  or  life,  the  in- 
jured party  accuses  him,  the  officers  of  the  law  arrest  him,  the  jurors 
upon  their  oaths  convict  him,  the  judges  pass  sentence,  and  the  sheriff 
executes  the  mandates  of  the  law; — while  parties,  officers,  jurors, 
judges,  and  sheriffs,  with  one  consent,  employ  teachers  to  direct  and 
train  the  godlike  faculties  of  their  children,  who  never  had  one  hour  of 
special  study,  who  never  received  one  lesson  of  special  instruction,  to 
fit  them  for  their  momentous  duties. 

If,  then,  the  business  of  education,  in  all  its  departments,  be  so  re- 
sponsible; if  there  be  such  liability  to  excite  and  strengthen  any  one 
faculty  of  the  opening  mind,  instead  of  its  antagonist;  if  there  be  such 
danger  of  promoting  animal  and  selfish  propensities  into  command 
over  social  and  moral  sentiments;  if  it  be  so  easy  for  an  unskillful 
hand  to  adjust  opportunity  to  temptation  in  such  a  way  that  the  ex- 
posed are  almost  certain  to  fall;  if  it  be  a  work  of  such  delicacy  and 
difficulty  to  reclaim  those  who  have  wandered;  if,  in  fine,  one,  not 
deeply  conversant  with  the  human  soul,  with  all  its  various  faculties 
and  propensities,  and  with  all  the  circumstances  and  objects  which 
naturally  excite  them  to  activity,  is  in  incomparably  greater  danger  of 
touching  the  wrong  spring  of  action,  than  one  unacquainted  with  mu- 
sic is  of  touching  the  wrong  key  or  chord  of  the  most  complicated  mus- 
ical instrument, — then,  ought  not  every  one  of  those  who  are  installed 
into  the  sacred  office  of  teacher,  to  be  "a  workman  who  needeth  not  to 
be  ashamed?  Surely,  they  should  know,  beforehand,  how  to  touch  the 
right  spring,  with  the  right  pressue,  at  the  right  time. 

There  is  a  terrible  disease  that  sometimes  afflicts  individuals,  by 
which  all  the  muscles  of  the  body  seem  to  be  unfastened  from  the  voli- 
tions of  the  mind,  and  then,  after  being  promiscuously  transposed,  to 
be  refastened;  so  that  a  wrong  pair  of  muscles  is  attached  to  every 
volition.  In  such  a  case,  the  afflicted  patient  never  does  the  thing  he 
intends  to  do.  If  he  would  walk  forward,  his  will  starts  the  wrong  pair 
of  muscles,  and  he  walks  backward.  When  he  would  extend  his  right 
arm  to  shake  hands  with  you,  in  salutation,  he  starts  the  wrong  pair 
of  muscles,  thrusts  out  his  left,  and  slaps  or  punches  you.  Precisely  so 
is  it  with  the  teacher  who  knows  not  what  faculties  of  his  pupils  to 
exercise,  and  by  what  objects,  motives,  or  processes,  they  can  be  brought 
into  activity.  He  is  the  will  of  the  school;  they  are  the  body  which 
that  will  moves;  and,  through  ignorance,  he  is  perpetually  applying  his 
will  to  the  wrong  points.  What  wonder,  then,  if,  spending  day  after 
day  in  pulling  at  the  wrong  pairs  of  muscles,  the  teacher  involves  the 
school  in  inextricable  disorder  and  confusion,  and,  at  last,  comes  to  the 
conviction  that  they  were  never  made  to  go  right? 

But,  says  an  objector,  can  any  man  ever  attain  to  such  knowledge 
that  he  can  touch  as  he  should  this  "harp  of  a  thousand  strings?"  Per- 
haps not,  I  reply;  but  ask,  in  my  turn,  Cannot  every  man  know  better 
than  he  now  does?  Cannot  something  be  done  to  make  good  teachers 
better,  and  incompetent  ones  less  incompetent?  Cannot  something  be 
done  to  promote  the  progress  and  to  diminish  the  dangers  of  all  our 
schools?  Cannot  something  be  done  to  increase  the  intelligence  of  those 


MR.  MANN'S  LECTUBE  IN  1838.  177 

female  teachers,  to  whose  hands  our  children  are  committed,  in  the 
earliest  and  most  impressible  periods  of  childhood; — and  thus,  in  the 
end,  to  increase  the  intelligence  of  mothers, — for  every  mother  is  ex 
officio  a  member  of  the  College  of  Teachers?  Cannot  something  be 
done,  by  study,  by  discussion,  by  practical  observation — and  especially 
by  the  institution  of  Normal  Schools, — which  shall  diffuse  both  the  art 
and  the  science  of  teaching  more  widely  through  our  community,  than 
they  have  ever  yet  been  diffused? 

My  friends,  you  cannot  go  for  any  considerable  distance  in  any  di- 
rection, within  the  limits  of  our  beloved  Commonwealth,  without  pass- 
ing one  of  those  edifices  professedly  erected  for  the  education  of  our 
children.  Though  rarely  an  architectural  ornament,  yet,  always,  they 
are  a  moral  beauty,  to  the  land  in  which  we  dwell.  Enter  with  me,  for 
a  moment,  into  one  of  these  important,  though  lowly  mansions.  Sur- 
vey those  thickly  seated  benches.  Before  us  are  clustered  the  children 
of  to-day,  the  men  of  to-morrow,  the  immortals  of  eternity!  What  cost- 
ly works  of  art;  what  splendid  galleries  of  sculpture  or  of  painting, 
won  by  a  nation's  arms,  or  purchased  by  a  nation's  wealth,  are  com- 
parable in  value  to  the  treasures  we  have  in  these  children?  How  many 
living  and  palpitating  nerves  come  down  from  parents  and  friends, 
and  center  in  their  young  hearts!  and,  as  they  shall  advance  in  life, 
other  living  and  palpitating  nerves,  which  no  man  can  number,  shall 
go  out  from  their  bosoms  to  twine  round  other  hearts,  and  to  feel  their 
throbs  of  pleasure  or  of  pain,  of  rapture  or  of  agony!  How  many  for- 
tunes of  others  shall  be  linked  with  their  fortunes,  and  shall  share  an 
equal  fate.  As  yet,  to  the  hearts  of  these  young  beings,  crime  has  not 
brought  in  its  retinue  of  fears,  nor  disappointment  its  sorrows.  Their 
joys  are  joys,  and  their  hopes  more  real  than  our  realities;  and,  as 
visions  of  the  future  burst  upon  their  imaginations,  their  eye  kindles, 
like  the  young  eagle's  at  the  morning  sunbeam.  Grouping  these  chil- 
dren into  separate  circles,  and  looking  forward,  for  but  a  few  short 
years,  to  the  fortunes  that  await  them,  shall  we  predict  their  destiny, 
in  the  terrific  lanuage  of  the  poet: — 

"These  shall  the  fury  passions  tear 

The  vultures  of  the  mind, 

Disdainful  Anger,  pallid  Fear, 

And  Shame  that  skulks  behind. 
"Ambition  this  shall  tempt  to  rise, 

Then  whirl  the  wretch  from  high, 

To  bitter  Scorn  a  sacrifice, 

And  grinning  Infamy. 
"The  stings  of  Falsehood,  those  shall  try, 

And  hard  unkindness'  alter'd  eye 

That  mocks  the  tear  it  forced  to  flow ; 

And  keen  Remorse,  with  blood  defiled, 

And  moody  Madness,  laughing  wild, 

Amid  severest  woe  ; — " 

or,  concentrating  our  whole  souls  into  one  resolve, — high  and  prophet- 
ically strong, — that  our  duty  to  these  children  shall  ~be  done,  shall  we 
proclaim,  in  the  blessed  language  of  the  Savior; — "!T  is  NOT  THE  WILL 
OF  YOUR  FATHER  WHICH  is  IN  HEAVEN,  THAT  ONE  OF  THESE  LITTLE  ONES 

SHOULD  PERISH." 


AN  ADDRESS* 

BY 

EDWARD  EVERETT,  GOVERNOR  OF   MASSACHUSETTS, 

AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  AT  BAKRE,   SEPTEMBER  5,   1839. 


We  are  assembled  to  take  a  suitable  public  notice  of  the  opening  of 
an  institution  in  this  place,  destined,  as  we  hope,  to  exercise  a  salu- 
tary influence  on  the  cause  of  common  school  education.  The  visitors 
of  the  institution  have  thought  it  expedient  that  a  public  explanation 
should  be  made,  at  this  time,  of  its  nature  and  objects,  and  of  the  hopes 
and  expectations  with  which  it  is  founded;  and  they  have  requested 
me,  on  their  behalf,  to  appear  before  you  for  this  purpose.  I  have  com- 
plied with  their  request  cheerfully.  My  official  connection  with  the 
Board  of  Education,  which,  under  the  authority  of  the  Legislature,  has 
established  the  school,  and  the  deep  personal  interest  I  take  in  the  re- 
sult of  this  experiment  for  the  improvement  of  popular  education  in 
the  commonwealth,  (convinced  as  I  am  that  the  time  has  come  when 
it  is  incumbent  on  the  people  of  Massachusetts  to  do  more  than  has  yet 
been  done  for  the  improvement  of  their  common  schools,)  are  the  mo- 
tives which  have  led  me,  at  considerable  personal  inconvenience,  to 
undertake  the  duty  which  has  been  assigned  to  me  on  this  occasion. 

The  institution  which  is  now  opened  in  this  pleasant  and  prosperous 
village,  is  devoted  to  the  education  of  teachers  of  common  schools,  and 
is  called  a  Normal  School.  The  name  normal  is  derived  from  a  Latin 
word,  which  signifies  a  rule,  standard,  or  law.  Schools  of  this  char- 
acter were  called  Normal  Schools,  on  their  establishment  in  France, 
either  because  they  were  designed  to  serve  in  themselves  as  the  model 
or  rule  by  which  other  schools  should  be  organized  and  instructed,  or 
because  their  object  was  to  teach  the  rules  and  methods  of  instructing 
and  governing  a  school.  This  name  has  been  adopted  to  designate  the 
schools  for  teachers  established  in  Massachusetts,  because  it  is  already 
in  use  to  denote  similar  institutions  in  Europe;  because  it  applies  ex- 
clusively to  schools  of  this  kind,  and  prevents  their  being  confounded 
with  any  others;  and  because  it  is  short,  and  of  convenient  use.  It  has 
been  already  adopted  in  England  and  in  our  sister  states,  in  writing 
and  speaking  of  institutions  for  the  education  of  teachers. 

Schools  of  this  kind  are  of  comparatively  recent  date.  In  1748,  a 
private  school  for  teachers  was  established  by  the  Rev.  John  Julius 
Hecker,  a  minister  of  the  gospel  at  Berlin,  and  chief  counselor  of  the 
consistory  of  that  place.  A  document  cited  by  M.  Cousin,  in  his  cele- 
brated report  on  the  subject  of  public  instruction  in  Prussia,  speaks 
of  Hecker  as  "the  first  individual  who  undertook  to  train  young  men 
for  the  art  of  teaching."  This  little  institution  was  founded  at  a  very 
critical  period  in  the  history  of  Prussia,  and  even  of  Europe;  in  fact,  it 
was  an  era  of  mighty  movement  throughout  the  world.  Frederic  II., 
commonly,  and  by  a  somewhat  questionable  title,  called  the  Great,  was 
projecting  the  plans  of  aggrandizement  by  which  he  aimed  to  raise 
Prussia,  before  his  time  a  secondary  state,  to  the  rank  of  a  leading 
power  in  Europe.  It  would  have  been  happy  for  his  subjects  and  man- 
kind if  all  his  measures  had  been  as  wise  or  as  innocent  as  those  which 
he  adopted  for  the  improvement  of  education.  He  seems  early  to  have 

*  Copied  by  permission  from  "Orations  and  Speeches  on  various  occasions,  by  Ed" 
ward  Everett.  2  vols.  Boston:  Charles  C.  Little  and  James  Brown.  1850." 


180  GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE. 

comprehended  the  importance  of  the  systematic  education  of  teachers; 
and  in  the  year  1754,  the  private  school,  established  under  the  auspices 
of  Mr.  Hecker,  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  royal  primary  school  for  the 
education  of  schoolmasters  and  parish  clerks.  It  was  directed,  by  a 
royal  ordinance  of  that  year,  that  all  schoolmasters  and  parish  clerks, 
whose  places  were  in  the  gift  of  the  crown,  should  be  appointed 
from  this  institution.  It  is  probable  that  at  the  same  time  funds  were 
appropriated  by  the  government  for  its  support. 

Scarcely,  however,  was  this  beginning  made  in  the  systematic  edu- 
cation of  teachers,  when  the  dreadful  Seven  Years'  war  came  on;  a 
war  which  spread  from  our  western  wilderness,  where  it  broke  out, 
to  the  bounds  of  the  civilized  world,  and  the  remotest  European  set- 
tlements in  India.  Frederic  was  the  hero  of  this  war  on  the  continent 
of  Europe.  He  conducted  it  with  a  perseverance,  skill  and  resolution, 
which  astonished  mankind,  and  came  out  of  it  with  an  exhausted 
treasury,  shattered  health,  and  a  wasted  kingdom.  The  Normal  School 
at  Berlin,  in  common  with  all  the  other  institutions  of  the  country, 
languished  under  the  pressure  of  the  times.  It  remained,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  inconsiderable  establishments  of  the  same  character 
in  the  city  of  Berlin,  the  only  institution  for  the  education  of  teachers, 
and  was,  of  course,  wholly  inadequate  to  the  wants  of  the  kingdom. 
In  1770,  a  fund  of  four  thousand  dollars  annually  was  appropriated 
by  Frederic  for  the  general  improvement  of  the  Prussian  schools,^  and 
it  was  expended  in  raising  the  salaries  of  teachers.  A  considerable 
impulse  was  given  to  the  cause  of  education  by  this  endowment;  but  I 
do  not  find  any  further  notice  of  the  progress  of  Normal  Schools  during 
the  residue  of  his  reign. 

Shortly  after  his  death,  the  French  Revolution  began;  and  in  the 
disastrous  wars  and  convulsions  to  which  it  gave  rise,  the  various 
states  of  Germany,  and  none  more  so  than  Prussia,  were  trampled  to 
the  dust.  The  effects  were  felt  in  all  their  institutions;  but,  as  often 
happens  in  human  affairs,  the  moment  of  extremest  depression  is  the 
moment  of  commencing  regeneration.  The  Prussian  monarchy,  broken 
by  the  fatal  battle  of  Jena,  in  1806,  seemed  on  the  verge  of  dissolution, 
and  to  owe  a  precarious  existence  to  the  clemency  of  Napoleon.  At 
this  gloomy  period,  it  occurred  to  some  noble  minds  to  attempt  the 
restoration  of  affairs  by  a  strong  appeal  to  the  popular  mind,  and  by 
awakening  a  powerful  sentiment  of  patriotism.  Every  thing  was  re- 
sorted to  which  could  promote  this  end.  The  clergy  were  appealed  to; 
the  high  schools  and  universities  were  agitated;  a  secret  association, 
under  the  name  of  the  Union  of  Virtue,  (Tugenbund,)  was  formed 
throughout  the  country;  the  ancient  German  costume  was  revived;  a 
jealousy  of  foreigners  inculcated;  and,  as  an  important  instrument 
toward  the  end  in  view,  the  attention  of  the  government  was,  in  1809, 
again  particularly  turned  to  the  subject  of  education  of  teachers.  In 
1810,  the  Normal  School  at  Berlin  was  re-organized;  but  before  the 
result  could  be  seen,  the  great  and  final  struggle  of  the  northern 
powers  of  Europe  with  Napoleon  took  place.  The  conflict  was  for  the 
independence  or  subjection,  the  life  or  death,  of  nations.  The  entire 
population  rose  as  a  man  at  the  call  of  the  governments;  the  univer- 
sities and  academies  sent  their  young  men,  scarce  able  to  bear  the 
weight  of  a  musket,  to  the  war;  and  it  terminated  in  the  overthrow 
of  the  invader. 

From  that  moment,  every  thing  in  Germany  seemed  animated  with 
new  life.  Prussia,  in  particular,  with  the  establishment  of  a  general 
peace,  bent  all  the  power  of  the  monarchy  upon  national  education, 
as  the  great  safeguard  of  national  independence.  The  Normal  School 
of  Berlin  was  transferred  to  Potsdam,  as  a  situation  more  retired  and 
favorable  for  its  objects.  Similar  schools  were  proposed  throughout 


GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE.  181 

the  kingdom,  and  in  other  parts  of  Germany;  and  in  the  year  1819, 
the  subject  of  education  was  referred  to  a  separate  department  of  the 
government,  under  a  minister  of  state  exclusively  devoted  to  its  ad- 
ministration. The  present  organization  of  the  Prussian  system  of  edu- 
cation dates  from  this  period,  and  by  the  provisions  of  an  ordinance 
of  the  government  of  the  same  year,  a  royal  Normal  School  is  estab- 
lished in  each  of  the  ten  provinces  of  the  kingdom,  as  an  essential  part 
of  the  system.  From  these  seminaries,  with  the  aid  derived  from 
various  local  establishments  of  the  same  character,  teachers  thoroughly 
trained  in  the  art  of  instruction  are  furnished  for  all  the  public  schools 
of  Prussia.  The  same  process  has  been  going  on  contemporaneously 
in  Saxony,  in  Bavaria,  in  Wirtemberg,  in  Baden,  and  other  German 
states.  The  example  early  spread  to  France,  and  more  recently  to  Hol- 
land. One  or  two  institutions  of  a  private  character  have,  it  is  be- 
lieved, been  established  in  England  for  the  formation  of  teachers;  and 
it  has  been  proposed  at  the  present  session  of  parliament,  by  a  com- 
mittee of  the  privy  council  of  the  realm,  to  found  a  central  Normal 
School  in  the  city  of  London.* 

The  attention  of  the  friends  of  education  in  several  of  the  states  of 
the  Union  has  for  some  time  been  turned  to  this  subject.  In  New 
York,  some  provision  has  been  made  by  the  Legislature  for  training 
teachers  at  the  incorporated  academies  of  the  state.  In  some  of  our 
own  respectable  academies,  the  qualifying  of  teachers  of  both  sexes 
has  been  particularly  attended  to,  and  these  establishments,  in  point 
of  fact,  have  served  as  the  nurseries  from  which  many  of  our  schools 
have  been  furnished  with  instructors.  In  addition  to  what  has  been 
done  in  this  way,  an  institution,  amply  endowed  by  private  liberality, 
has  existed  for  some  time  at  Andover,  expressly  devoted  to  the  educa- 
tion of  instructors.  Many  respectable  teachers  have,  it  is  believed, 
been  formed  at  this  school. 

The  subject  of  special  provision  by  public  authority  for  the  education 
of  teachers  has  at  many  different  times,  within  the  last  few  years,  been 
considered  by  the  committees  of  education  of  the  two  branches  of  the 
Legislature.  Their  establishment  has  been  strongly  urged  in  the  re- 
ports which,  from  time  to  time,  have  emanated  from  this  source. 
Among  those  who  have  recommended  such  a  provision  with  the  greatest 
zeal  and  intelligence,  it  would  be  unjust  not  to  mention  the  name  of 
a  citizen  of  this  county,  (Mr.  Carter,  of  Lancaster,)  who,  both  in  a 
separate  publication  and  in  official  reports  as  a  member  of  both 
branches  of  the  Legislature,  has  rendered  distinguished  service  in  this 
way. 

In  the  first  report  of  the  Board  of  Education,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1838,  the  attention  of  the  Legislature  was  invited  to  this  subject. 
In  the  course  of  the  ensuing  session,  the  secretary  of  the  board  was 
authorized  by  a  friend  of  education,  whose  name  was  not  communi- 
cated to  the  public,*  to  inform  the  Legislature  that  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars would  be  furnished  by  him  whenever  the  same  sum  should  be 
appropriated  from  the  public  treasury,  to  be  expended  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Board  of  Education  in  qualifying  teachers  for  the  common 
schools  of  Massachusetts.  This  offer  was  promptly  accepted  by  the 
Legislature,  and  the  requisite  appropriation  made. 

The  steps  taken  by  the  Board  of  Education,  in  discharge  of  the  im- 
portant trust  thus  devolved  upon  them,  are  minutely  set  forth  in  their 
second  annual  report,  which  was  made  to  the  Legislature  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  last  session.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  observe,  on  the 

*  Since  the  delivery  of  this  address,  this  and  other  similar  projects  have  gone  into 
highly  successful  operation  in  England,  under  the  auspices  of  the  committee  of  the 
privy  council  for  education. 

*  The  late  Hon.  Edward  Dwight. 


182  GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE. 

present  occasion,  that  after  deliberate  and  anxious  reflection,  and  a 
careful  comparison  of  the  claims  of  various  places  proposed,  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  commonwealth,  Lexington,  in  Middlesex  county, 
and  Barre,  in  Worcester  county,  have  been  selected  as  the  sites  of 
two  of  the  Normal  Schools.  A  confident  expectation  is  entertained 
that  a  third  may  shortly  be  established  in  some  other  part  of  the 
state,  t 

These  institutions  are,  of  course,  to  some  extent  experimental.  They 
are  so  of  necessity.  The  funds  provided  for  their  support,  with  all  the 
subsidiary  aid  which  can  reasonably  be  expected  from  the  friends  of 
education  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  schools,  although  highly  creditable 
to  the  generous  spirit  by  which  they  are  furnished,  are  quite  inade- 
quate to  the  endowment  of  permanent  establishments.  For  reasons 
set  forth  in  the  report  to  which  I  have  alluded,  it  was  thought  proper 
not  to  stake  the  result  of  the  whole  trial  on  one  school;  but  to  afford 
to  different  parts  of  the  commonwealth  an  opportunity  of  judging  for 
themselves.  It  was  further  considered  that  three  years  is  the  shortest 
period  which  would  authorize  any  safe  conclusion  as  to  the  operation 
of  the  system.  It  will  readily  be  perceived  that  when  the  funds  to  be 
disposed  of  are  divided  among  three  schools,  and  distributed  over  three 
years,  it  becomes  necessary  to  adopt  the  most  frugal  scale  of  expen- 
diture not  inconsistent  with  the  object  to  be  attained.  Our  situation 
in  this  respect  is  widely  different  from  that  of  foreign  countries, 
where  ample  funds  for  objects  of  this  kind  are  appropriated  by  wealthy 
governments;  where  buildings,  apparatus,  libraries,  and  the  mainten- 
ance of  pupils,  are  provided  for  by  permanent  dotations;  and  as  many 
instructors  are  supported  as  are  deemed  necessary  for  the  fullest  devel- 
opment of  the  system. 

The  narrowness  of  the  means  from  which  the  experiment  of  our 
Normal  Schools  is  undertaken  may  (though  we  trust  it  will  not)  defeat 
its  success.  We  hope  that  so  much  good  will  manifestly  be  done  within 
the  range  of  our  resources,  that  the  Legislature  will  be  disposed,  and 
private  benefactors  encouraged,  to  convert  our  temporary  Normal 
Schools  into  permanent  foundations  for  the  qualification  of  teachers. 
Still,  however,  we  trust,  in  justice  to  all  concerned,  that  it  will  be  borne 
in  mind,  that  this  experiment  is  conducted  under  considerable  disad- 
vantages, independent  of  the  difficulties  incident  to  the  organization 
of  every  new  institution.  This  consideration,  we  trust,  will  secure  us 
the  sympathy  and  co-operation  of  the  community  in  which  the  schools 
are  established,  and  of  the  public  at  large.  It  is  always  of  great  im- 
portance to  a  youthful  institution,  that  it  should  be  kindly  regarded  in 
the  place  where  it  is  established.  We  trust  that  the  respected  prin- 
cipal of  this  school,  and  all  who  many  have  a  joint  care  with  him  in 
conducting  it,  and  all  who  resort  to  it  to  qualify  themselves  as  teachers, 
will  enjoy  the  good  will,  and  be  favored  with  the  countenance  and 
kind  offices,  of  the  reverend  clergy  of  all  denominations,  of  the  indi- 
viduals of  lead  and  influence  in  the  other  professions,  and  of  the  citi- 
zens generally  in  this  part  of  the  commonwealth.  While  no  pains  will 
be  spared  to  make  the  school  creditable  to  the  community  in  which 
it  is  placed,  nothing  will  do  more  to  promote  its  prosperity  than  the 
friendly  regard  of  an  enlightened  public. 

This  occasion  requires  a  few  remarks  on  the  character  and  objects 
of  Normal  Schools,  and  the  importance  of  a  systematic  education  of 
teachers.  Much  has  been  said  and  written  of  late  on  this  subject.  Not 
to  mention  foreign  publications,  it  is  discussed  at  length  in  the  legis- 
lative reports  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  a  very  valuable  essay  by 

t  Since  this  address  was  delivered,  a  third  Normal  School  has  been  founded  at 
Bridgewater,  and  those  at  Lexington  and  Barre  have  been  transferred  to  Newton  and 
Westfield. 


oov.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE.  183 

Professor  Stowe,  on  Normal  Schools  and  Teachers'  Seminaries,  has 
recently  been  given  to  the  public.  The  necessary  limits  of  an  address 
of  this  kind  will  require  my  remarks  to  be  of  a  very  general  character. 

The  office  of  the  teacher,  in  forming  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the 
young,  and  training  up  those  who  are  to  take  our  places  in  life,  is  all- 
important.  After  all  that  has  been  said,  in  all  ages,  on  the  subject, 
more  than  justice  has  not  been,  and  never  can  be,  done  to  the  theme. 
With  no  small  part  of  the  children  in  the  community,  the  intercourse 
of  the  teacher  with  the  young  is  scarcely  inferior,  in  closeness  and  the 
length  of  time  for  which  it  is  kept  up,  to  that  of  the  parents; — not  at 
all  inferior,  in  the  importance  of  the  objects  to  be  attained  by  it.  As 
soon  as  the  child  is  old  enough  to  be  sent  to  school,  the  teacher  is  re- 
lied upon  to  furnish  occupation  for  the  opening  faculties  of  the  mind, 
to  direct  its  efforts  in  the  acquisition  of  the  elements  of  knowledge, 
and  to  suggest  the  first  distinct  ideas  on  some  of  the  most  important 
questions  in  conduct  and  morals.  The  child  is  committed  to  the  teach- 
er's hands  in  the  very  morning  of  life,  when  the  character,  still  more 
than  the  young  limbs,  is,  so  to  say,  still  in  the  gristle.  They  have, 
both  limbs  and  character,  acquired  some  of  their  proper  consistency 
and  power  of  resistance;  but  to  how  much  of  the  intellectual  and  moral 
frame  are  not  the  first  impress  and  shaping  to  be  given  at  school? 
Is  this  a  light  matter?  If  the  teacher  was  to  fashion  your  child's  per- 
sonal proportions,  or  to  remold  his  features,  with  what  jealousy  would 
you  inquire  after  his  qualification  for  that  task?  Is  it  of  less  import- 
ance how  he  fashions  and  molds  the  features  of  the  mind?  Is  it  of 
small  account,  whether  your  child's  germinating  faculties — to  use  a 
proverbial  expression,  to  which  no  rhetoric  can  add  force — shall  be 
"nipped  in  the  bud,"  a  bud  in  which  seeds  of  immortal  life  and  heav- 
enly intelligence  have  been  curiously  wrapped  by  the  Creator?  The 
husband-man  can  tell  us  if  it  is  a  matter  of  little  or  no  consequence 
whether  you  employ  a  skillful  or  an  unskillful  person  to  raise  a  crop 
of  corn,  the  growth  of  a  few  months,  under  a  simple  process  of  cul- 
ture. And  yet  so  much  depends  on  proper  management,  that  from 
the  same  seed  you  may  see,  in  one  field,  the  corn  towering  up,  vigor- 
ous, swelling  with  life  and  strength,  its  broad,  healthy  leaves  crack- 
ling till  the  farmer  thinks  he  can  both  hear  it  and  see  it  grow,  the 
graceful  tassel  dancing  on  the  summit  of  the  stalk,  and  dropping  its 
fertilizing  powder  on  the  silken  filaments,  which  force  their  way  from 
the  top  of  the  husk  to  receive  the  vital  principle,  and  convey  it  to  the 
ripening  ear;  and  perhaps  on  the  other  side  of  the  way,  in  a  corner  of 
the  sluggard's  garden,  struggling  with  rank  weeds  for  the  joint  pos- 
session of  the  unenriched  soil,  you  will  see,  from  the  same  seed,  a 
scanty,  blighted,  sickly  crop,  yellow  as  saffron  when  it  ought  to  be 
green,  and  black  when  it  ought  to  be  yellow,  and  scarce  promising  a 
few  meager  stalks  for  the  barn-yard.  Whenever  I  witness  such  a  con- 
trast in  the  natural  world,  I  ask  myself,  with  trembling,  whether  the 
mind  is  a  principle  so  much  less  delicate  than  a  blade  of  grass, — 
whether  the  proper  care  and  culture  of  the  intellect,  the  raising  up 
and  the  training  up  of  that  unspeakable  mystery  on  earth,  a  thinking, 
reasoning,  discoursing,  immortal  creature, — are  so  inferior  in  import- 
ance, in  difficulty,  and  in  the  amount  of  the  consequences  involved, 
that  while  we  would  trust  the  tillage  of  our  field,  the  sowing  of  our 
corn,  and  the  gathering  of  the  harvest,  only  to  an  expert  and  a  judi- 
cious hand,  any  one  may  be  trusted  to  keep  our  schools  and  cultivate 
the  minds  of  our  children? 

These  inquiries  scarcely  need  an  answer.  Every  man's  reflection  who 
is  able  to  reason  on  the  subject, — every  one's  observation  who  has 
turned  his  attention  to  it, — every  one's  experience  who  has  had  chil- 
dren of  his  own  confided  to  a  succession  of  teachers,  and  still  more, 


184  GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE. 

who,  at  any  time,  has  himself  been  engaged  in  the  business  of  in- 
struction, will  satisfy  himself  that  the  teacher's  duty  is  important, 
complicated,  and  arduous.  It  is  not  a  mere  piece  of  job-work,  to  which 
any  one  may  turn  his  hand,  but  a  professional  calling,  which  requires 
knowledge,  judgment,  and  experience. 

There  is  scarce  such  a  thing  conceivable,  as  even  a  solitary  act, 
consisting  of  several  parts  or  movements,  which  does  not  admit  of 
every  degree  of  excellence  in  the  manner  and  success  of  the  perform- 
ance. See  two  men  handle  an  ax,  in  cutting  down  a  tree,  one  a  raw 
hand,  the  other  a  practiced  woodman.  Look  at  two  persons  on  horse- 
back, of  equal  courage  and  strength,  the  one  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life  in  the  saddle,  the  other  an  expert  rider.  One  seems  to  realize 
the  fable  of  the  Centaur,  as  if  he  were  himself  a  part  of  the  animal 
on  which  he  is  moving;  the  other  can  scarce  keep  his  seat.  Let  an 
inexperienced  person  go  to  work  with  a  handsaw  or  a  paint  brush;  or 
undertake  to  conduct  a  piece  of  cloth  through  a  power-loom,  or  to 
cover  a  whip-handle  with  its  mysterious  network;  and  he  will  be  very 
sure,  for  several  times,  to  fail.  I  think  there  are  few  persons  in  this 
assembly,  except  those  who  may  have  had  considerable  practice,  who 
can  drive  a  nail  straight  into  a  board,  without  striking  their  fingers 
with  the  hammer.  In  fact,  "to  hit  a  nail  on  the  head,"  simple  as 
the  operation  seems,  is  in  reality  one  of  so  much  nicety,  that  it  has 
become  a  proverbial  expression  for  dexterity  and  skill. 

We  might  cast  our  eyes  over  the  entire  circle  of  human  pursuit, 
and  find  new  illustrations  of  the  necessity  of  diligent  preparation  for 
every  calling;  and  no  one  can  seriously  suppose  that  the  office  of  an 
instructor  makes  an  exception.  But  inasmuch  as  institutions  for  the 
education  of  teachers  are  as  yet  hardly  known  by  name  among  us, 
it  is  a  natural  question  how  teachers  in  our  country  have  hitherto  been 
able  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  May 
not  the  means  which  have  hitherto  proved  adequate  for  the  supply  of 
our  schools  with  competent  instructors,  still  suffice  for  that  purpose? 
The  question  is  a  fair  one,  and  deserves  a  candid  answer. 

Whoever  thinks  that  we  are  favored  with  an  ample  supply  of  teach- 
ers, as  well  qualified  as  can  be  wished,  needs  no  further  answer.  Who- 
ever considers  that  of  the  teachers  in  times  past  and  at  the  present 
day  in  our  schools,  there  are  those  possessing  all  degrees  of  qualifi- 
cation, from  very  high  to  very  low,  it  will  seem  a  pertinent  inquiry, 
what  their  means  of  preparation  have  been;  and  such  an  inquirer 
will  probably  be  of  opinion  that  we  need  a  more  systematic  and  effi- 
cient preparation  for  this  purpose. 

We  must  assume,  then,  first,  that  natural  aptitude  goes  very  far, 
on  the  plan  hitherto  pursued,  in  deciding  the  qualification  of  the 
teacher.  This,  under  all  circumstances,  will  be  an  important  element. 
One  man  will  be  a  better  teacher,  with  little  or  no  training  or  ex- 
perience, than  some  others,  who  pass  their  lives  in  the  business.  This, 
however,  is  equally  the  case  in  every  pursuit  or  calling, — in  law, 
physic,  and  divinity,  in  trade,  manufactures,  and  farming, — and  is 
never  thought  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  education.  Some  remain 
inefficient  and  incapable  after  every  imaginable  advantage;  others, 
with  slender  opportunities,  bound,  as  it  were,  at  a  single  leap,  to  the 
front  rank.  I  have  seen  a  person,  who,  from  his  infancy,  never  knew 
a  want;  who  passed  from  the  arms  of  a  careful  nurse  into  the  care 
of  the  best  of  teachers;  who  enjoyed,  from  the  first,  every  conceiv- 
able aid  and  encouragement,  (except  the  most  efficient  of  all,  the 
spur  of  necessity,)  the  best  of  masters,  the  best  of  books  in  abundance, 
and  steady  schooling,  and,  at  the  close  of  his  school  education,  grossly 
ignorant  in  every  branch  of  knowledge;  while  another,  of  the  same 


oov.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE.  185 

age,  educated  under  the  stern  discipline  of  necessity,  with  limited 
means,  the  ordinary  chance  of  instructors,  the  old  books  which  his 
father  wore  out  before  him,  and  attendance  at  school  far  from  steady, 
has  advanced  from  one  branch  to  another,  mastering  each  as  he  goes, 
with  a  keen  relish  for  learning,  and  an  ever-craving  appetite  for  new 
truth.  Whatever  may  be  the  calling  of  these  two  men,  one  is  destined 
to  eminence,  the  other  to  failure.  Should  circumstances  call  them  to 
the  instructor's  desk,  it  is  quite  evident  that  he  who  has  learned  little 
will  have  still  less  to  teach,  while  the  other  will  be  very  likely  to 
exhibit  the  same  facility  in  the  communication  as  in  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge. 

In  the  next  place,  the  teacher's  fitness,  at  the  present  day,  depends 
very  much  on  the  kind  of  instruction  which  he  received  himself  while 
at  school.  If  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  be  taught  by  a  sound,  accurate, 
and  judicious  instructor,  he  will  be  not  unlikely  to  exhibit  that  char- 
acter himself.  A  good  degree  of  the  school-keeping  capacity,  and  I  may 
say,  also,  incapacity,  are  traceable  to  this  source.  Our  schools  are  under 
a  kind  of  traditionary  discipline.  To  a  considerable  extent  they  are 
kept  by  young  men  and  women,  who  make  a  pretty  rapid  transition 
from  the  pupil's  bench  to  the  master's  and  mistress's  chair.  Unless 
they  possess  strong,  original  minds, — which  are  not  very  common, — 
there  is  not  much  likelihood  that  they  will  rise  above  the  standard 
of  the  schools  where  they  were  themselves  taught.  If  these  were 
very  good,  they  will  be  more  apt  to  fall  below  it.  Mediocrity  is  much 
more  apt  to  be  propagated  than  excellence.  If  a  teacher  of  average 
capacity  keep  the  school  for  a  few  years,  he  will  not  be  likely  to  make 
any  improvements,  and  will  do  very  well  if  he  hands  it  over  to  his 
successor  as  good  as  he  found  it.  When  this  state  of  things  prevails 
in  a  community  for  a  long  course  of  years,  we  behold  the  painful 
spectacle  of  schools  in  the  rear  of  every  thing  else.  There  is  progress 
in  every  thing  else,  but  the  schools  are  stationary,  and  even  degener- 
ating. I  have  heard  judicious  observers  express  the  doubt,  whether 
the  average  of  our  district  schools,  at  the  present  day,  are  better  than 
they  were  thirty  years  ago.  If  the  remark  is  just,  it  is  a  state  of 
things  not  very  creditable  to  the  commonwealth.  To  keep  pace  with 
the  general  progress  of  improvement,  they  ought  to  be  much  better. 
We  should  be  ashamed  to  be  quoted  hereafter,  as  a  proof  that  there 
is  a  law  in  the  intellectual  and  moral,  like  that  which  has  been  ob- 
served in  the  natural  world,  with  respect  to  many  of  the  products 
of  the  earth — that  the  fruit  which  is  borne  on  the  graft  runs  out  with 
the  original  stock.  Good  husbandry  requires  that  attention  should 
be  constantly  given  to  the  discovery  of  improved  methods,  and  the 
introduction  of  new  varieties  raised  from  the  seed.  Tradition  is 
closely  allied  to  degeneracy. 

Where  the  teacher  engages  in  his  pursuit  for  life,  a  new  source  of 
qualification  presents  itself  of  great  value;  I  mean  experience.  He 
qualifies  himself.  But  such  teachers  are  not  found,  I  presume,  in 
many  of  our  common  schools.  They  rise  to  higher  stations.  Besides 
this,  it  may  happen,  when  Experience  is  the  teacher,  as  with  teachers 
of  other  kindsr  the  pupil  is  by  no  means  sure  to  excel  his  master.  Self- 
instruction  is  not  always  improving.  It  depends  on  the  character  of 
a  man's  mind,  how  much  advantage  he  derives  from  experience.  The 
experience  of  one  man  is  clear  and  decisive.  He  commits  an  error, 
perceives  it,  and  henceforward  avoids  it.  He  is  struck  with  the  ad- 
vantage of  some  procedure  or  method,  traces  that  advantage  to  its 
principle,  builds  a  rule  upon  it,  and  enlarges  or  amends  his  practice 
to  the  end  of  life.  The  experience  of  other  men  yields  them  no  such 
fruit.  It  is  vague  and  irresolute.  They  live  and  act,  but  have  no 
experience,  properly  so  called.  Proceeding  without  steady  principles 


186  GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE. 

of  conduct,  without  the  intelligence  or  the  moral  aptitude  to  profit 
by  their  mistakes,  the  working  of  one  day  counteracts  that  of  an- 
other. It  is  only  where  order,  the  first  law  of  earth,  as  well  as  Heaven, 
presides,  that  day  unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and  night  unto  night 
showeth  forth  knowledge.  Without  this  guide  of  conduct,  experience 
may  perplex  instead  of  directing.  The  mistake  of  to-day  produces 
the  mistake  of  to-morrow;  and  life  is  exhausted  in  half -finished  experi- 
ments and  constantly-repeated  blunders,  so  that  whether  a  man's  ex- 
perience profit  him  depends  upon  whether  it  is  good  experience,  which 
may  be  either  successful  experience,  or  unsuccessful  experience  wisely 
heeded ;  and  it  may  -often  happen  that  the  recorded  experience  of  an- 
other more  judicious  mind  will  in  reality  guide  a  man  better  than  his 
own. 

The  recorded  experience  of  others,  then, — that  is,  books, — is  another 
means  by  which  the  teacher  at  present  qualifies  himself  for  his  call- 
ing. Unquestionably,  the  conscientious  instructor  may  derive  the 
greatest  advantages  from  the  careful  study  of  judicious  publications 
on  the  subject  of  his  pursuit.  The  number  of  these  is  greatly  mul- 
tiplied of  late  years.  It  is  a  branch  of  literature  comparatively  of 
recent  growth;  and  without  doing  injustice  to  the  works  of  the  pat- 
riarchs in  this  science,  of  Plato  and  of  Cicero  to  the  writings  of 
Ascham,  of  Milton,  of  Locke,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that,  for  practical 
views,  what  has  been  written  within  the  last  fifty  years  exceeds,  both 
in  amount  and  value,  all  that  had  before  been  given  to  the  world  on 
the  subject  of  education.  As  far  as  my  acquaintance  with  the  subject 
extends,  the  works  of  Miss  Edgeworth  are  entitled  to  the  credit  of 
having  first  promulgated,  in  the  English  language  at  least,  sound 
and  judicious  views  as  to  the  whole  business  of  education.  A  per- 
son thoroughly  possessed  of  every  thing  in  her  works,  would  have 
but  little  to  learn,  as  to  general  principles,  (with  one  exception,)  from 
other  sources.  There  are,  however,  many  things,  of  course,  in  her 
publications,  not  applicable  to  the  condition  of  things  in  this  country; 
and  on  one  all  important  topic,  the  subject  of  religious  instruction,  there 
is  a  deeply  to  be  lamented  deficiency.  For  the  practical  purposes 
of  the  American  teacher,  some  good  works  have  appeared  in  our  own 
country,  of  which  that  of  Mr.  Jacob  Abbott  appears  to  me  decidedly 
the  best.  No  person  can  peruse  it  without  gaining  new  conceptions 
of  the  importance  of  the  teacher's  duty,  and  practical  hints  as  to  the 
best  method  of  discharging  it.  Whether  a  perusal  of  it  will  not,  in 
most  cases,  leave  on  the  reader's  mind  a  painful  impression  as  to 
the  imperfection  of  our  schools,  in  condition  and  management,  is  a 
question  which  each  must  answer  for  himself. 

From  the  various  useful  works  on  the  business  of  instruction,  the 
faithful  teacher  will,  under  all  circumstances,  derive  great  benefit. 
But  neither  in  this  nor  any  other  calling,  will  the  solitary  study  of 
books  effect  all  that  is  to  be  desired,  to  say  nothing  of  the  objection 
to  this  and  all  the  other  sources  of  self-instruction,  which  arises 
from  the  condition  of  the  schools,  while  the  master  is  endeavoring  to 
improve  himself.  Those  of  our  children  may  do  well  who  have  the 
advantage  of  his  teaching,  after  he  has  qualified  himself  by  experience 
in  office  and  the  study  of  good  books;  but  what  is  to  become  of  those 
who  are  to  get  their  education  while  the  process  is  going  on,  and  be- 
fore it  has  proceeded  to  any  valuable  extent?  As  a  general  remark, 
perhaps  it  would  not  be  unjust  to  say,  that  most  of  our  teachers  retire 
from  that  pursuit  about  the  time  they  become  well  qualified  to  carry 
it  on  to  the  greatest  advantage. 

We  are  thus  brought  to  the  necessity  of  some  specific  preliminary 
preparation  for  the  office  of  teacher — a  preparation  which  shall  fit 
him  in  some  degree  beforehand  for  his  duties.  To  afford  this  prepara- 


oov.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE.  187 

tion,  is  the  precise  object  of  a  Normal  School.  Nothing  is  farther 
from  my  purpose  than  to  set  up  the  pretension  that  there  can  be  no 
well-qualified  teacher  without  such  a  school;  but  that  great  advant- 
ages may  be  expected  from  a  regular  plan  of  instruction,  in  semi- 
naries devoted  to  this  object;  a  plan  of  instruction  to  come  in  aid  of 
all  the  other  means  of  improvement,  on  which  the  faithful  teacher 
must  now  exclusively  depend.  To  afford  this  instruction,  is  the  ob- 
ject of  the  Normal  Schools  now  established  in  the  commonwealth. 
It  is  impossible  that  it  should  be  so  thorough  and  comprehensive,  as 
the  theory  of  a  perfect  institution  of  the  kind  requires.  There  are 
no  funds  applicable  to  the  expense  of  such  an  establishment;  and  our 
young  men  and  women  could  not  generally  afford  the  time  requisite 
for  a  very  long  course  of  preparation,  because  the  majority  of  our 
districts  do  not  require,  and  would  not  support,  teachers  who,  having 
been  at  great  expense  of  time  and  money  in  fitting  themselves  for 
their  calling,  would  need  a  proportionate  compensation.  We  suppose 
that  many  of  those  who  resort  to  these  institutions,  will,  at  present, 
be  able  only  to  pass  but  a  part  of  one  year  in  the  enjoyment  of  their 
advantages;  but  while  provision  is  made  for  the  shortest  period  for 
which  any  individual  could  reasonably  wish  to  be  received,  a  thorough 
course  of  instruction  will  also  be  arranged  for  those  who  desire  to 
devote  a  longer  time  to  their  preparation  as  teachers. 

Such  a  course  of  instruction  will  obviously  consist  of  the  following 
parts : 

i.  A  careful  review  of  the  branches  of  knowledge  required  to  be 
taught  in  our  common  schools;  it  being,  of  course,  the  first  requisite 
of  a  teacher  that  he  should  himself  know  well  that  which  he  is  to  aid 
others  in  learning.  Such  an  acquaintance  with  these  branches  of 
knowledge  is  much  less  common  than  may  be  generally  supposed. 
The  remark  may  sound  paradoxical,  but  I  believe  it  will  bear  exami- 
nation, when  I  say,  that  a  teacher  thoroughly  versed  in  those  branches 
of  knowledge  only  which  are  taught  in  our  common  schools,  is  as  dif- 
ficult to  find  as  a  first-rate  lawyer,  divine,  or  physician,  statesman, 
man  of  business,  or  farmer.  A  good  schoolmaster  should  be  able  to 
read  and  speak  the  English  language  with  propriety,  ease,  and  grace; 
and  this  can  not  be  done  without  a  thorough  knowledge  of  its  gram- 
mar. He  should  possess,  at  the  same  time,  a  clear,  shapely,  and  rapid 
hand-writing,  and  be  well  versed  in  the  elemental  principles  and  oper- 
ations of  numbers.  Without  going  beyond  these  three  branches, — 
best  designated  by  the  good  old-fashioned  names  of  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic, — I  venture  to  say  that  a  man  who  possesses  them 
thoroughly  is  as  rare  as  one  of  corresponding  eminence  in  any  of  the 
learned  professions.  And  yet  the  law  requires  such  masters  for  our 
district  schools.  What  says  the  statute?  "In  every  town  containing 
fifty  families  or  householders,  there  shall  be  kept,  in  each  year,  at 
the  charge  of  the  town,  by  a  teacher  or  teachers  of  competent  abilities 
and  good  morals,  a  school  for  the  instructions  of  children  in  orthog- 
raphy, reading,  writing,  English  grammar,  geography,  arithmetic, 
and  good  behavior." 

How  few,  even  of  those  considered  men  of  education,  are  thoroughly 
versed  even  in  the  branches  required  by  law  in  our  common  schools! 
How  much  fewer  who  know  them  as  a  teacher  should  know  them!  for 
a  teacher  ought  to  know  of  every  thing  much  more  than  the  learner 
can  be  expected  to  acquire.  The  teacher  must  know  things  in  a  mas- 
terly way,  curiously,  nicely,  and  in  their  reasons. 

The  great  mistake  in  monitorial  instruction  is,  that  it  supposes  that 
the  moment  the  bare  knowledge  of  a  fact  in  its  naked  form  is  attained, 
it  qualifies  a  person  to  teach  it  to  others.  The  teacher  must  see  the 


188  GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE. 

truth  under  all  Its  aspects,  with  its  antecedents  and  consequents,  or 
he  cannot  present  it  in  just  that  shape  in  which  the  young  mind  can 
apprehend  it.  He  must,  as  he  holds  the  diamond  up  to  the  sun,  turn 
its  facets  round  and  round,  till  the  pupil  catches  its  luster.  It  is  not 
an  uncommon  thing  to  hear  it  said  of  a  grown  person  that  he  is  too 
learned  to  teach  children;  that  he  knows  too  much,  is  too  far  in  ad- 
vance of  their  minds,  to  perceive  their  difficulties.  I  imagine  the 
trouble  generally  to  be  of  the  opposite  character.  The  man  of  learn- 
ing either  never  understood  the  matter  thoroughly,  or  he  has  forgotten 
what  he  once  knew.  He  has  retained  enough  of  his  school  learning  for 
the  particular  calling  of  life  he  has  chosen;  but  he  has  not  retained  a 
clear  recollection  of  the  elemental  truths  which  it  is  necessary  the 
learner  should  comprehend.  If  in  this  state  of  things  he  can  not  com- 
prehend the  schoolboy's  difficulty,  it  is  not  his  superior  wisdom,  but 
his  ignorance,  which  is  at  fault.  These  remarks  apply  particularly  to 
the  science  of  numbers,  over  which  most  of  our  children  pass  lan- 
guishing days  and  weeks,  vainly  striving  to  master  a  hard  "sum"  or  a 
hard  rule,  which  they  finally  give  up  in  despair,  or  of  which  they  con- 
tent themselves  with  some  false  explanation,  from  pure  want  of  ca- 
pacity on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  A  child  of  eight  or  nine  years  of 
age,  at  one  of  our  district  schools,  had  run  through  the  chief  rules  of 
arithmetic,  as  it  used  to  be  taught,  doing  all  the  sums,  and  setting 
them  down  in  his  ciphering  book,  without  the  slightest  comprehension 
of  the  reason  of  any  one  of  the  operations.  At  last,  after  going  for  a 
second  or  third  time  through  the  rule  of  decimals,  he,  for  the  first 
time,  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  real  nature  of  a  decimal  fraction,  of 
which  he  had  been  wholly  ignorant  before,  and  which,  in  his  simplic- 
ity, he  thought  a  discovery  of  his  own.  It  was  not  till  some  time  after- 
ward that  he  found  out  that  mankind  had  for  a  great  while  been  aware 
that  a  decimal  is  the  numerator  of  a  fraction  whose  denominator  is  a 
unit  with  as  many  ciphers  as  the  numerator  has  places.  The  first  ob- 
ject of  instruction  in  a  Normal  School  is,  as  far  as  possible,  in  the 
space  of  time  assigned  to  its  instructions,  to  go  over  the  circle  of 
branches  required  to  be  taught,  and  see  that  the  future  teacher  is 
thoroughly  and  minutely  versed  in  them. 

2.  The  second  part  of  instruction  in  a  Normal  School  is  the  art  of 
teaching.  To  know  the  matter  to  be  taught,  and  to  know  it  thoroughly, 
are  of  themselves,  though  essential,  not  all  that  is  required.  There  is 
a  peculiar  art  of  teaching.  The  details  of  this  branch  are  inexhausti- 
ble, but  it  is  hoped  that  the  most  important  principles  may  be  brought 
within  such  a  compass  as  to  afford  material  benefit  to  those  who  pass 
even  the  shortest  time  at  these  institutions.  The  subject  should  be 
taken  up  at  its  foundation,  in  those  principles  of  our  nature  on  which 
education  depends;  the  laws  which  control  the  faculties  of  the  youth- 
ful mind  in  the  pursuit  and  attainment  of  truth;  and  the  moral  senti- 
ments on  the  part  of  teacher  and  pupil  which  must  be  brought  into 
harmonious  action.  The  future  teacher  must  be  instructed  in  the  most 
effectual  way  of  reaching  untaught  mind — a  process  subtile,  difficult, 
various.  The  first  thing  requisite  often  will  be  to  ascertain  what  has 
to  be  unlearned,  both  as  to  positive  errors  and  bad  habits  of  mind. 
The  child  who  has  been  accustomed  to  add  numbers  together  by 
counting  on  his  fingers,  instead  of  learning  a  simple  addition  table  by 
rote  at  the  outset;  who  has  formed  to  himself  a  small,  ill-looking,  and 
illegible  scrawl,  under  the  name  of  a  running  hand,  without  ever  hav- 
ing learned  to  shape  the  letters  in  bold  and  fair  proportions;  or  who, 
under  the  notion  of  refinements  beyond  the  common  standard,  has 
been  taught  such  barbarisms  as  "he  shew  me  the  book,"  "I  have  began 
to  read  it,"  "had  I  have  had  time  to  go," — such  a  child,  I  say,  comes 


GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE.  189 

into  the  hands  of  the  teacher  heavily  laden  with  a  cargo,  which  it 
must  be  the  first  labor  and  care  to  throw  overboard. 

But  the  art  of  teaching  is  not  confined  to  a  correction  of  the  errors, 
or  a  reform  of  the  bad  habits,  of  the  mistaught  pupil.  Where  nothing 
of  this  kind  is  to  be  done,  the  mind  of  the  learner  is  still  to  be  guided, 
aided,  and  encouraged  in  its  progress.  The  perfection  of  the  art  of 
teaching  consists  in  hitting  the  precise  point  between  that  which  the 
studious  pupil  must  do  for  himself,  and  that  which  the  instructor  may 
do  with  him  and  for  him.  It  is  not  enough,  in  teaching  a  child  to  read, 
to  correct  with  a  harsh  voice  some  gross  error  which  he  may  make  in 
reading  a  verse  or  two  in  the  New  Testament  or  the  National  Reader. 
The  teacher  must  himself,  patiently,  kindly,  and  with  a  gentle  voice, 
read  the  passage  over  repeatedly,  and  see  that  the  learner  under- 
stands the  meaning  of  every  word,  and  of  the  whole  sentence.  It  is 
peculiar  to  arithmetic,  that  though  there  are  degrees  of  readiness  in 
performing  its  operations,  there  are  no  degrees  of  clearness  and  cer- 
tainty in  the  knowledge  of  its  principles.  The  incredible  vexation 
which  attends  the  study  of  this  branch  with  many  children,  generally 
arises  from  the  unskillfulness  of  the  teacher,  in  not  taking  care  that 
the  learner,  as  he  goes  along,  understands  thoroughly  each  successive 
step.  If  this  be  done,  the  child  of  ten  years  old  will  know  what  he 
knows  at  all  as  well  as  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  Some  simple  schoolboy 
muse,  in  former  times,  has  recorded  its  sorrowful  experience  on  this 
subject  in  the  following  plaintive  and,  in  my  day,  very  popular  strain — 

"Multiplication  is  vexation. 

Division  is  as  bad, 
The  rule  of  three  doth  puzzle  me, 
And  practice  makes  me  mad." 

But  if  proper  care  be  taken  that  every  step  be  thoroughly  understood 
before  advancing  to  the  next,  multiplication  and  division  will  be  found 
as  simple  as  addition  or  subtraction;  while  the  rule  of  three  and  prac- 
tice have  been  shown,  in  the  recent  and  best  school  books,  to  be 
wholly  unnecessary,  inasmuch  as  all  questions  usually  performed  by 
their  aid  can  be  more  readily  performed  by  simpler  processes. 

One  thing  is  certain;  that  though  there  can  be  no  difference  in  the 
average  capacity  of  equal  numbers  of  the  children  in  two  schools  in 
the  same  community,  there  is  often  a  vast  difference  in  the  average 
scholarship,  after  the  same  amount  of  schooling.  To  what  can  the 
difference  be  ascribed,  but  to  the  different  degrees  of  skill  on  the  part 
of  teachers?  It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  find  children  who,  after 
having  been  months,  and  even  years,  employed  either  on  the  lower 
elements  or  on  the  higher  branches  of  learning,  leave  school,  at  last, 
knowing  nothing  thoroughly,  and  not  much  superficially.  They  can 
not  read  with  fluency,  force,  and  intelligence,  to  say  nothing  of  grace 
and  beauty;  they  write  a  poor,  unsteady,  hieroglyphical  hand;  they 
have  no  clear  notions  of  grammatical  construction,  and  are  awkward 
and  incorrect  in  the  use  of  numbers.  Perhaps  this  is  the  description 
of  nearly  half  the  children  who  leave  school  in  town  or  country.  The 
little  that  is  learned  of  Latin  and  Greek  is  equally  inaccurate  and 
shallow.  The  fault  is  commonly  laid  at  the  pupil's  door,  especially  if 
he  has  had  what  is  usually  called  schooling  enough.  I  think,  however, 
generally,  that  the  fault  is  with  the  teacher,  who  is  frequently  not 
thoroughly  versed  himself  in  what  he  undertakes  to  teach — more  fre- 
quently unskilled  in  the  art  of  teaching.  The  astonishing  difference 
sometimes  noticed  in  the  progress  of  the  same  school  under  different 
teachers,  in  successive  seasons,  shows  how  much  is  justly  attributable 
to  this  cause. 

Besides  the  general  art  of  teaching,  there  are  peculiar  methods,  ap- 
plicable to  each  branch  of  knowledge,  which  should  be  unfolded  in  the 


190  GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE. 

instructions  of  a  Normal  School ;  but  this  is  a  topic  in  which  my  limits 
do  not  permit  me  to  engage.  I  hasten  to 

3.  The  third  branch  of  instruction  to  be  imparted  in  an  institution, 
which  concerns  the  important  subject  of  the  government  of  the  school, 
and  which  might  perhaps  more  justly  have  been  named  the  first.  The 
best  method  of  governing  a  school — that  is,  of  exercising  such  a  moral 
influence  in  it  as  is  most  favorable  to  the  improvement  of  the  pupils — 
will  form  a  very  important  part  of  the  course  of  instruction  designed 
to  qualify  teachers  for  their  calling.  It  is  this  part  of  their  duty  which 
is  probably  least  considered  by  themselves  or  their  employers;  for  the 
reason,  perhaps,  that  qualification  in  this  respect  is  least  capable  of 
being  estimated  by  an  external  standard.  But  how  much  is  not  implied 
in  the  words  "to  govern  a  school!"  For  several  hours  in  the  day,  the 
teacher  is  to  exercise  the  authority  of  a  parent  over  fifty  or  sixty,  per- 
haps over  ninety  or  a  hundred  children.  Parents  can  form  an  opinion 
whether  this  is  a  task  to  be  executed  without  system,  without  princi- 
ples, and  as  a  matter  of  course;  or  whether  it  is  not  that  in  which  the 
youthful  teacher  will  most  stand  in  need  of  all  the  preparation  which 
it  is  possible  to  acquire.  Without  the  aid  of  that  instinct  of  natural 
affection  which  fortifies  parental  authority,  he  is  expected,  with  a 
parent's  power,  to  control  alike  the  docile  and  the  obstinate,  the  sullen 
and  the  gay.  While  his  entire  intercourse  with  his  pupils  is  that  of 
constraint  and  requisition,  he  must  acquire  an  absolute  control  over 
many  a  youthful  spirit,  which  has  already  been  irritated  by  caprice, 
soured  by  tyranny,  or  spoiled  by  indulgence  at  home.  And  he  is  to  do 
this  not  by  violence  and  storm,  but  by  wisely  threading  the  maze  of 
that  living  labyrinth,  the  affections  of  the  youthful  heart.  In  this  de- 
partment perhaps  greater  improvement  has  taken  place  of  late  years 
than  in  any  other;  there  has  been  a  general  call  for  moral  influence, 
instead  of  physical  power.  I  do  not  say  that  this  last  should  never  be 
resorted  to,  but  I  trust  the  day  is  wholly  past  for  that  ferocious  war- 
fare between  master  and  pupil  which  was  once  so  general,  and  with  no 
other  effect  than  that  of  turning  the  teacher's  office  into  a  hateful 
tyranny,  and  the  happy  season  of  childhood  into  a  long  martyrdom. 
Dr.  Johnson,  in  composing  a  legal  argument  to  be  used  by  another 
person,  puts  into  his  mouth  the  sentiment,  "that  a  school  can  be  gov- 
erned only  by  fear."  It  would,  I  think,  have  been  much  nearer  the 
truth  to  say,  that  a  school  can  be  governed  only  by  patient,  enlight- 
ened, Christian  love,  the  master  principle  of  our  natures.  It  softens 
the  ferocity  of  the  savage;  it  melts  the  felon  in  his  cell.  In  the  man- 
agement of  children  it  is  the  great  source  of  influence;  and  the  teach- 
er of  youth,  though  his  mind  be  a  storehouse  of  knowledge,  is  ignorant 
of  the  first  principles  of  his  art,  if  he  has  not  embraced  this  as  an 
elemental  maxim. 

But  let  it  not  be  thought  that  these  are  smooth  sayings,  and  that 
moral  discipline  is  unattended  with  difficulty,  and  preferred  by  an 
indolent  age  for  its  comparative  ease.  The  reverse  is  nearer  the  truth. 
To  walk  the  rounds  of  the  school  with  a  ratan  in  the  hand,  to  be  be- 
stowed as  liberally  on  the  thoughtless  exuberance  of  youthful  spirits, 
on  the  restlessness  of  the  little  urchin  unused  to  his  confinement,  and 
on  the  mistakes  of  mere  inadvertence  or  absolute  ignorance,  as  on 
hardened  perversity  and  resolute  disobedience,  is  a  much  easier  task 
than  to  graduate  each  of  these  cases  on  the  scale  of  moral  demerit, 
and  to  treat  them  accordingly.  It  is  related  of  the  late  Dr.  Bowditch, 
that  he  very  early  manifested  that  skill  in  numbers  which  afterward 
raised  him  to  the  level  of  the  first  mathematicians  of  the  day.  While 
quite  a  child  at  school,  he  performed  a  difficult  sum  in  arithmetic  with 
astonishing  readiness.  His  schoolmaster  was  at  once  so  ignorant  of 
the  mode  of  governing  a  school,  and  had  so  little  acquainted  himself 


GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE.  191 

with  the  powers  of  his  pupil's  mind,  that  he  thought  it  impossible  the 
task  should  have  been  performed  without  assistance,  and  asked  who 
had  helped  him.  On  being  told  by  young  Bowditch  that  he  had  done 
it  himself,  the  coarse  tyrant  severely  chastised  him  for  falsehood — a 
treatment  well  calculated  to  subvert  the  entire  moral  frame  of  a  sen- 
sitive lad,  but  much  more  simple  than  it  would  have  been  for  an  un- 
derstanding such  as  this  master  possessed  to  enter  into  a  careful 
analysis  of  the  capacities  of  his  forward  pupil. 

The  instruction  of  the  Normal  School  will  therefore  dwell  on  the 
government  of  youth  as  of  paramount  importance;  as  that  part  of  the 
teacher's  duty  which  demands  the  rarest  union  of  qualities,  which 
most  tries  the  temper,  and  I  will  add,  when  faithfully  and  judiciously 
performed,  is  most  important  in  its  results.  Give  me  the  child  whose 
heart  has  embraced  without  violence  the  gentle  lore  of  obedience,  in 
whom  the  sprightliness  of  youth  has  not  encroached  on  deference  for 
authority,  and  I  would  rather  have  him  for  my  son,  though  at  the  age 
of  twelve  he  should  have  his  alphabet  to  learn,  than  be  compelled  to 
struggle  with  the  caprice  of  a  self-willed,  obstinate  youth,  whose  bosom 
has  become  a  viper's  nest  of  the  unamiable  passions,  although  in  early 
attainments  he  may  be  the  wonder  of  the  day. 

There  are  many  other  topics  connected  with  the  teacher's  duty,  on 
which  it  may  be  expected  that  instruction  will  be  afforded  in  the  Nor- 
mal School.  Among  these  is  the  all-important  subject  of  direct  in- 
struction in  morals  and  religion,  the  relations  of  teachers  and  parents, 
of  teachers  and  the  higher  school  authorities,  and  the  duties  of  teach- 
ers to  each  other  and  to  the  community,  and  of  the  community  to 
them,  as  the  members  of  a  respectable  profession.  I  am  necessarily 
prevented  by  the  limits  of  the  occasion  from  entering  upon  any  of 
these  subjects. 

4.  In  the  last  place,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  in  aid  of  all  the  in- 
struction and  exercises  within  the  limits  of  the  Normal  School,  prop- 
erly so  called,  there  is  to  be  established  a  common  or  district  school, 
as  a  school  of  practice,  in  which,  under  the  direction  of  the  principal 
of  the  Normal  School,  the  young  teacher  may  have  the  benefit  of  ac- 
tual exercise  in  the  business  of  instruction.  This,  of  course,  is  a  very 
interesting  portion  of  the  system;  but  I  am  obliged  to  dismiss  it  with 
this  simple  mention. 

Such  then,  briefly,  are  the  nature  and  objects  of  a  Normal  School, 
and  such  the  manner  in  which  it  proposes  to  qualify  teachers.  We  do 
not  expect  that  it  will  work  miracles;  we  shall  be  satisfied  if  it  does 
good;  and  of  this  only  we  feel  a  reasonable  degree  of  confidence,  that 
no  young  man  or  young  woman  can  pass  even  three  months  in  the 
institution  without  leaving  it  better  qualified  for  the  business  of  in- 
struction. We  trust  the  result  will  be  such  as  eventually  to  contribute 
to  the  improvement  of  our  schools.  We  have  spared  no  pains,  with  the 
means  at  our  command,  to  secure  in  advance  the  confidence  of  an  en- 
lightened public.  The  talent,  the  services,  and  the  distinguished  char- 
acter of  the  gentlemen  to  whom  the  schools  already  founded  have  been 
intrusted,  are  a  pledge  to  the  community  of  what  may  be  expected 
from  their  labors  in  this  cause.  Among  the  fundamental  principles 
laid  down  by  the  Board  of  Education  for  the  government  of  the  Nor- 
mal Schools,  it  has  been  provided  that  a  portion  of  Scripture  shall  be 
daily  read;  and  it  is  their  devout  hope  that  a  fervent  spirit  of  prayer, 
pervading  the  heart  of  both  principal  and  pupils,  may  draw  down  the 
Divine  blessing  on  their  pursuits. 

I  can  not  forbear,  sir,*  to  express  to  you,  on  this  occasion,  the  deep 
sense  which  is  felt  by  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  importance  of 

*  Professor  S.  P.  Newman 


192  oov.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE. 

the  trust  which  they  have  confided  to  your  hands.  I  have  the  pleasure 
to  assure  you,  that  all  their  proceedings  in  reference  to  the  school,  and 
your  own  connection  with  it,  have  been  entirely  unanimous,  and  that 
a  large  measure  of  confidence  is  reposed  both  in  your  ability  and  dis- 
position to  fulfil  their  expectations.  The  reputation  which  you  bring 
to  this  place,  acquired  by  a  long  course  of  faithful  labor  in  a  highly 
responsible  station  elsewhere,  (Bowdoin  College,)  is  a  sufficient  guar- 
anty to  the  public  of  the  services  which  may  be  expected  from  you  in 
this  new  and  untried  position.  On  you  and  the  highly  respected  prin- 
cipal of  the  Normal  School  at  Lexington,  (Mr.  Cyrus  Pierce,)  it  will 
depend  at  present,  in  no  small  degree,  whether  institutions  of  this 
description  shall  win  the  public  favor,  and  be  incorporated  into  our 
system  of  common  school  education.  We  are  sensible  of  the  deep  re- 
sponsibility which  this  consideration  devolves  upon  you,  and  shall,  at 
all  times,  extend  to  you,  to  the  utmost  of  our  power,  the  support  and 
encouragement  you  may  need.  Should  this  effort  succeed  to  improve 
our  schools  by  the  increased  qualifications  of  our  teachers,  you  will 
have  the  satisfaction  of  being  the  first  in  our  country  to  engage  in  an 
enterprise  of  the  most  eminent  usefulness.  Ages  may  pass  away  be- 
fore an  opportunity  will  present  itself  of  working  greater  good  than 
will  be  effected  by  those  in  this  generation,  who  shall  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  decided  improvements  in  popular  education.  We  commend 
you,  sir,  to  the  support  of  this  enlightened  community,  and  the  care 
of  a  watchful  Providence. 

To  you,  my  young  friends  of  either  sex,  who  have  entered  yourselves 
as  pupils  of  the  Normal  School,  we  would  say  that  the  eyes  of  the 
friends  of  education,  in  all  parts  of  the  commonwealth,  will  be  anxious- 
ly fixed  upon  you,  and  those  who,  with  you,  may  be  among  the  first 
to  take  advantage  of  the  means  of  improvement  which  this  institution 
affords.  You  are  about  to  prepare  yourselves,  under  great  advantages, 
for  the  important  office  of  instruction.  This  momentous  trust,  which 
hitherto,  almost  without  exception,  in  this  country,  has  been  assumed 
without  specific  preparation,  will  be  approached  by  you,  after  having 
had  its  principles  carefully  unfolded  to  you,  with  some  opportunity  of 
putting  them  to  practice,  in  the  model  school,  which  will  form  a  part  of 
the  institution.  When  you  shall  engage  in  the  business  of  instruction, 
the  community  will  reasonably  expect  of  you  that  you  should  exhibit 
unusual  fitness  for  the  work.  Let  this  thought  engage  you  to  enter 
upon  your  studies  with  redoubled  zeal.  A  failure  on  your  part  to  meet 
the  public  expectation,  will  have  an  injurious  effect,  for  some  time,  on 
this  attempt  to  improve  the  qualifications  of  teachers,  in  institutions 
expressly  devoted  to  that  object.  On  the  other  hand,  your  spirit  and 
devotion  to  the  object  you  are  pursuing,  and  your  visible  improvement 
in  the  noble  skill  of  aiding  in  the  development  of  mind  and  the  forma- 
tion of  character,  while  they  will  put  you  upon  the  path  of  acknowl- 
edged usefulness  and  prosperity,  will  contribute  essentially  to  the  per- 
manent adoption  of  Normal  Schools,  as  a  part  of  the  Massachusetts 
system  of  public  education.  May  a  higher  motive  than  human  appro- 
bation animate  your  conduct,  and  the  Divine  blessing  crown  your 
studies  with  success. 

Permit  me,  fellow-citizens  and  friends,  in  bringing  this  address  to  a 
close,  to  congratulate  you  on  the  establishment,  in  the  bosom  of  this 
community,  of  an  institution  destined,  we  trust,  to  be  an  instrument 
of  great  good.  We  place  it  under  the  protection  of  an  intelligent  pub- 
lic. Its  organization  is  simple;  its  action  will  be  wholly  free  from 
parade  and  display;  its  fruits,  we  trust,  will  be  seen  in  raising  the 
standard  of  common  school  education.  This  object,  we  confess,  we 
regard  as  one  of  paramount  importance, — second  to  no  other  not  im- 
mediately connected  with  the  spiritual  concerns  of  man.  If  there  be 


oov.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE.  193 

any  persons  to  whom  the  words  "common  schools"  and  "common 
school  education"  convey  an  idea  of  disparagement  and  insignificance, 
such  persons  are  ignorant,  not  merely  of  the  true  character  of  our  po- 
litical system,  but  of  the  nature  of  man.  I  certainly  intend  nothing 
derogatory  to  our  higher  seminaries  of  education,  in  town  or  in  coun- 
try. They  are  recognized  by  the  constitution  of  the  state.  It  is  made 
the  duty  of  all  magistrates  to  encourage  and  promote  them,  and  they 
are  justly  strong  in  the  public  favor.  But  whether  we  consider  the 
numbers  who  enjoy  their  benefit,  the  relative  importance  to  the  state 
of  an  entire  well-educated  population,  and  of  the  services  of  those 
who  receive  the  adventages  of  an  education  at  the  higher  seminaries, 
taken  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  a  liberal  education  may  be  had 
elsewhere,  but  that  a  common  school  education  must  be  had  at  home 
or  not  at  all,  no  rational  man,  as  it  seems  to  me,  can  fail  to  perceive 
the  superior  importance  of  the  common  schools.  They  give  the  keys 
of  knowledge  to  the  mass  of  the  people.  The  child  learns  more  by  his 
fourth  year,  than  the  philosopher  at  any  subsequent  period  of  his  life; 
he  learns  to  affix  an  intelligible  sign  to  every  outward  object  and  in- 
ward emotion,  by  a  gentle  impulse  imparted  from  his  lips  to  the  air. 
In  like  manner,  I  think  it  may  with  truth  be  said,  that  the  branches  of 
knowledge  taught  in  our  common  schools,  when  taught  in  a  finished, 
masterly  manner, — reading,  in  which  I  include  the  spelling  of  our 
language, — a  firm,  silghtly,  legible  hand-writing,  and  the  elemental 
rules  of  arithmetic,  are  of  greater  value  than  all  the  rest  which  is 
taught  at  school.  I  am  far  from  saying  that  nothing  else  can  be  taught 
at  our  district  schools;  but  the  young  person  who  brings  these  from 
school  can  himself,  in'  his  winter  evenings,  range  over  the  entire  field 
of  useful  knowledge.  Our  common  schools  are  important  in  the  same 
way  as  the  common  air,  the  common  sunshine,  the  common  rain,  in- 
valuable for  their  commonness.  They  are  the  corner-stone  of  that  mu- 
nicipal organization  which  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  our  social 
system;  they  are  the  fountain  of  that  wide-spread  intelligence,  which, 
like  a  moral  life,  pervades  the  country;  they  are  the  nursery  of  that  in- 
quiring spirit  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  the  preservation  of  the 
blessings  of  an  inquiring,  Protestant,  spiritual  faith.  Established  as 
they  were  by  special  legislation  in  the  infancy  of  the  colony,  while  they 
are  kept  up  and  supported  with  a  liberality  corresponding  with  the 
growth  of  the  country,  no  serious  evil  can  befall  us.  Whatsoever  other 
calamities,  external  or  internal,  may  overtake  us,  while  the  schools 
are  supported,  they  will  furnish  a  perennial  principle  of  restoration. 
With  her  three  thousand  district  schools,  supported  at  the  public  ex- 
pense, nothing  but  the  irreversible  decree  of  Omnipotence  can  bring 
the  beaming  forehead  of  Massachusetts  to  the  dust.  Vicissitudes  may 
blight  the  foliage,  but  there  will  be  vigor  in  the  trunk,  and  life  at  the 
root.  Talent  will  constantly  spring  up  on  her  barren  hill-sides,  and  in 
her  secluded  vales,  and  find  an  avenue,  through  her  schools,  to  the 
broad  theatre  of  life,  where  great  affairs  are  conducted  by  able  men. 
Other  states  may  exceed  her  in  fertility  of  soil,  but  the  skillful  labor 
of  her  free  citizens  will  clothe  her  plains  with  plenty.  Other  states 
may  greatly  outnumber  her,  but  her  ingenuity  will  people  her  shady 
glens  and  babbling  waterfalls  with  half-reasoning  engines,  which  will 
accomplish  the  work  of  toiling  myriads.  Other  states  will  far  surpass 
her  in  geographical  domain;  but  the  government  of  cultivated  mind  is 
as  boundless  as  the  universe.  Wheresoever  on  the  surface  of  the 
globe,  and  in  the  long  line  of  coming  ages,  there  is  a  reasonable  being, 
there  is  a  legitimate  subject  of  mental  influence.  From  the  humblest 
village  school,  there  may  go  forth  a  teacher  who  like  Newton,  shall 
bind  his  temples  with  the  stars  of  Orion's  belt, — with  Herschel,  light 

M 


194  GOV.  EVERETT'S  ADDRESS  AT  BARRE. 

up  his  cell  with  the  beams  of  before  undiscovered  planets, — with 
Franklin,  grasp  the  lightning.  Columbus,  fortified  with  a  few  sound 
geographical  principles,  was,  on  the  deck  of  his  crazy  caravel,  more 
truly  the  monarch  of  Castile  and  Arragon,  than  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
enthroned  beneath  the  golden  vaults  of  the  conquered  Alhambra.  And 
Robinson,  with  the  simple  training  of  a  rural  pastor  in  England,  when 
he  knelt  on  the  shore  of  Delft  Haven,  and  sent  his  little  flock  upon 
their  gospel  errantry  beyond  the  world  of  waters,  exercised  an  in- 
fluence over  the  destinies  of  the  civilized  world  which  will  last  to  the 
end  of  time. 


REMARKS 

AT  THE  DEDICATION  OF  THE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL-HOUSE 
AT   BRIDGEWATER. 

August  19,  1846. 


The  completion  of  a  new  edifice  to  accommodate  the  State 
Normal  School  at  Bridgewater  was  signalized  by  appropri- 
ate exercises,  on  the  19th  of  August,  1846.  Addresses  were 
made  during  the  day  by  His  Excellency,  Governor  Briggs, 
Hon.  William  G.  Bates,  of  Westfield,  Amasa  Walker,  Esq., 
of  Brookfield,  at  the  church,  and  in  the  new  school-room. 
After  these  addresses  the  company  partook  of  a  collation  in 
the  Town  Hall,  on  which  occasion  the  health  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Education  was  given  by  the  president 
of  the  day,  and  received  by  the  company  with  enthusiastic 
applause.  To  this  sentiment  Mr.  Mann  responded  as  follows, 
as  reported  in  the  Boston  Mercantile  Journal. 

Mr.  President:  Among  all  the  lights  and  shadows  that  have  ever 
crossed  my  path,  this  day's  radiance  is  the  brightest.  Two  years  ago, 
I  would  have  been  willing  to  compromise  for  ten  years'  work,  as  hard 
as  any  I  had  ever  performed,  to  have  been  insured  that,  at  the  end  of 
that  period,  I  should  see  what  our  eyes  this  day  behold.  We  now  wit- 
ness the  completion  of  a  new  and  beautiful  Normal  School-house  for 
the  State  Normal  School  at  Bridgewater.  One  fortnight  from  tomor- 
row, another  house,  as  beautiful  as  this,  is  to  be  dedicated  at  West- 
field,  for  the  State  Normal  School  at  that  place.  West  Newton  was 
already  provided  for  by  private  munificence.  Each  Normal  School 
then  will  occupy  a  house,  neat,  commodious,  and  well  adapted  to  its 
wants;  and  the  Principals  of  the  schools  will  be  relieved  from  the 
annoyance  of  keeping  a  Normal  School  in  an  oft-Normal  house. 

I  shall  not  even  advert  to  the  painful  causes  which  have  hastened 
this  most  desirable  consummation, — since  what  was  meant  for  evil 
has  resulted  in  so  much  good.  Let  me,  however,  say  to  you,  as  the 
moral  of  this  result,  that  it  strengthens  in  my  own  mind  what  I  have 
always  felt;  and  I  hope  it  will  strengthen,  or  create,  in  all  your  minds, 
a  repugnance  to  that  sickly  and  cowardly  sentiment  of  the  poet,  which 
made  him  long 

"For  a  lodge  in  some  vast  wilderness, 
Some  boundless  contiguity  of  shade, 
Where  rumor  of  oppression  and  deceit, 
Of  unsuccessful  or  successful  wars, 
Might  never  reach  him  more." 

There  is  oppression  in  the  world  which  almost  crushes  the  life  out 
of  humanity.  There  is  deceit,  which  not  only  ensnares  the  unwary,  but 
almost  abolishes  the  security,  and  confidence,  and  delight,  which  ra- 
tional and  social  beings  ought  to  enjoy  in  their  intercourse  with  each 
other.  There  are  wars,  and  the  question  whether  they  are  right  or 
wrong,  tortures  the  good  man  a  thousand  times  more  than  any  suc- 
cesses or  defeats  of  either  belligerent.  But  the  feeling  which  springs 
up  spontaneously  in  my  mind,  and  which  I  hope  springs  up  spontan- 
eously in  your  minds,  my  friends,  in  view  of  the  errors,  and  calamities, 
and  iniquities  of  the  race,  is,  not  to  flee  from  the  world,  but  to  remain 


196  MB.  MANN'S  REMARKS  AT  BRIDGEWATER. 

in  it;  not  to  hie  away  to  forest  solitudes  or  hermit  cells,  but  to  con- 
front selfishness,  and  wickedness,  and  ignorance,  at  whatever  personal 
peril,  and  to  subdue  and  extirpate  them,  or  to  die  in  the  attempt.  Had 
it  not  been  for  a  feeling  like  this  among  your  friends,  and  the  friends 
of  the  sacred  cause  of  education  in  which  you  have  enlisted,  you  well 
know  that  the  Normal  Schools  of  Massachusetts  would  have  been  put 
down,  and  that  this  day  never  would  have  shone  to  gladden  our  hearts 
and  to  reward  our  toils  and  sacrifices.  Let  no  man  who  knows  not 
what  has  been  suffered,  what  has  been  borne  and  forborne,  to  bring  to 
pass  the  present  event,  accuse  me  of  an  extravagance  of  joy. 

Mr.  President,  I  consider  this  event  as  marking  an  era  in  the  prog- 
ress of  education, — which,  as  we  all  know,  is  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion,— on  this  western  continent  and  throughout  the  world.  It  is  the 
completion  of  the  first  Normal  School-house  ever  erected  in  Massa- 
chusetts,— in  the  Union, — in  this  hemisphere.  It  belongs  to  that  class 
of  events  which  may  happen  once,  but  are  incapable  of  being  repeated. 

I  believe  Normal  Schools  to  be  a  new  instrumentality  in  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  race.  I  believe  that,  without  them,  Free  Schools 
themselves  would  be  shorn  of  their  strength  and  their  healing  power, 
and  would  at  length  become  mere  charity  schools,  and  thus  die  out 
in  fact  and  in  form.  Neither  the  art  of  printing,  nor  the  trial  by  jury, 
nor  a  free  press,  nor  free  suffrage,  can  long  exist,  to  any  beneficial 
and  salutary  purpose,  without  schools  for  the  training  of  teachers; 
for,  if  the  character  and  qualifications  of  teachers  be  allowed  to  de- 
generate, the  Free  Schools  will  become  pauper  schools,  and  the  pauper 
schools  will  produce  pauper  souls,  and  the  free  press  will  become  a 
false  and  licentious  press,  and  ignorant  voters  will  become  venal  vot- 
ers, and  through  the  medium  and  guise  of  republican  forms,  an  oligar- 
chy of  profligate  and  flagitious  men  will  govern  the  land;  nay,  the 
universal  diffusion  and  ultimate  triumph  of  all-glorious  Christianity 
itself  must  await  the  time  when  knowledge  shall  be  diffused  among 
men  through  the  instrumentality  of  good  schools.  Coiled  up  in  this 
institution,  as  in  a  spring,  there  is  a  vigor  whose  uncoiling  may  wheel 
the  spheres. 

But  this  occasion  brings  to  mind  the  past  history  of  these  schools, 
not  less  than  it  awakens  our  hopes  and  convinces  our  judgment  re- 
specting their  future  success. 

I  hold,  sir,  in  my  hand,  a  paper,  which  contains  the  origin,  the 
source,  the  punctum  saliens,  of  the  Normal  Schools  of  Massachusetts. 
[Here  Mr.  Mann  read  a  note  from  the  Hon.  Edmund  Dwight,  dated 
March  10th,  1838,  authorizing  him,  Mr.  Mann,  to  say  to  the  Legislature, 
that  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars  would  be  given  by  an  individual 
for  the  preparation  of  teachers  of  Common  Schools,  provided  the  Leg- 
islature would  give  an  equal  sum.  The  reading  was  received  with  great 
applause.] 

It  will  be  observed,  resumed  Mr.  Mann,  that  this  note  refers  to  a 
conversation  held  on  the  evening  previous  to  its  date.  The  time,  the 
spot,  the  words  of  that  conversation  can  never  be  erased  from  my 
soul.  This  day,  triumphant  over  the  past,  auspicious  for  the  future, 
then  rose  to  my  sight.  By  the  auroral  light  of  hope,  I  saw  company 
after  company  go  forth  from  the  bosom  of  these  institutions,  like 
angel  ministers,  to  spread  abroad,  over  waste  spiritual  realms,  the 
power  of  knowledge  and  the  delights  of  virtue.  Thank  God,  the  ene- 
mies who  have  since  risen  up  to  oppose  and  malign  us,  did  not  cast 
their  hideous  shadows  across  that  beautiful  scene. 

The  proposition  made  to  the  Legislature  was  accepted,  almost  with- 
out opposition,  in  both  branches;  and  on  the  third  day  of  July,  1839, 
the  first  Normal  School,  consisting  of  only  three  pupils,  was  opened 


MB.  MANN'S  REMARKS  AT  BRIDGEWATER.  197 

at  Lexington,  under  the  care  of  a  gentleman  who  now  sits  before  me, — 
Mr.  Cyrus  Pierce,  of  Nantucket, — then  of  island,  but  now  of  contin- 
ental fame. 

[This  called  forth  great  cheering:,  and  Mr.  Mann  said  he  should  sit  down  to  give  Mr. 
Pierce  an  opportunity  to  respond.  Mr.  Pierce  arose  under  great  embarrassment ; 
starting  at  the  sound  of  his  name,  and  half  doubting  whether  the  eloquent  Secretary 
had  not  intended  to  name  some  other  person.  He  soon  recovered,  however,  and  in  a 
very  happy  manner  extricated  himself  from  the  "fix"  in  which  the  Secretary  had 
placed  him.  He  spoke  of  his  children,  the  pupils  of  the  first  Normal  School,  and  of 
the  honorable  competition  which  ought  to  exist  between  the  several  schools ;  and  to 
the  surprise,  as  well  as  regret,  of  all  who  heard  him,  he  spoke  of  being  admonished 
by  infirmities  which  he  could  not  mistake,  that  it  was  time  for  him  to  retire  from 
the  profession.  The  audience  felt  as  if,  for  once  in  his  life,  this  excellent  teacher  had 
threatened  to  do  wrong.  He  then  told  an  amusing  anecdote  of  a  professor  who  re- 
tained his  office  too  long,  and  was  toasted  by  the  students  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Watts, 

— "The  Rev.  Dr.  ,  Hush,  my  babe,  lie  still  and  slumber."  And  then  he  sat  down 

amidst  the  sincere  plaudits  of  the  company,  who  seemed  to  think  he  was  not  "so 
plaguy  old"  as  he  wished  to  appear.] 

I  say,  said  Mr.  Mann,  on  resuming,  that,  though  the  average  number 
of  Mr.  Pierce's  school  is  now  from  sixty  to  eighty;  and  though  this 
school,  at  the  present  term,  consists  of  one  hundred  pupils,  yet  the 
first  term  of  the  first  school  opened  with  three  pupils  only.  The  truth 
is,  though  it  may  seem  a  paradox  to  say  so,  the  Normal  Schools  had 
to  come  to  prepare  a  way  for  themselves,  and  to  show,  by  practical 
demonstration,  what  they  were  able  to  accomplish.  Like  Christianity 
itself,  had  they  waited  till  the  world  at  large  called  for  them,  or  was 
ready  to  receive  them,  they  would  never  have  come. 

In  September,  1839,  two  other  Normal  Schools  were  established: 
one  at  Barre,  in  the  county  of  Worcester,  since  removed  to  Westfield, 
in  the  county  of  Hampden;  and  the  other  at  this  place,  whose  only  re- 
moval has  been  a  constant  moving  onward  and  upward,  to  higher  and 
higher  degrees  of  prosperity  and  usefulness. 

In  tracing  down  the  history  of  these  schools  to  the  present  time, 
I  prefer  to  bring  into  view,  rather  the  agencies  that  have  helped,  than 
the  obstacles  which  have  opposed  them. 

I  say,  then,  that  I  believe  Massachusetts  to  have  been  the  only  State 
in  the  Union  where  Normal  Schools  could  have  been  established;  or 
where,  if  established,  they  would  have  been  allowed  to  continue.  At 
the  time  they  were  established,  five  or  six  thousand  teachers  were 
annually  engaged  in  our  Common  Schools;  and  probably  nearly  as 
many  more  were  looking  forward  to  the  same  occupation.  These  in- 
cumbents and  expectants,  together  with  their  families  and  circles  of 
relatives  and  acquaintances,  would  probably  have  constituted  the 
greater  portion  of  active  influence  on  school  affairs  in  the  State;  and 
had  they,  as  a  body,  yielded  to  the  invidious  appeals  that  were  made  to 
them  by  a  few  agents  and  emissaries  of  evil,  they  might  have  extin- 
guished the  Normal  Schools,  as  a  whirlwind  puts  out  a  taper.  I  honor 
the  great  body  of  Common  School  teachers  in  Massachusetts  for  the 
magnanimity  they  have  displayed  on  this  subject.  I  know  that  many  of 
them  have  said,  almost  in  so  many  words,  and,  what  is  nobler,  they 
have  acted  as  they  have  said: — "We  are  conscious  of  our  deficiencies; 
we  are  grateful  for  any  means  that  will  supply  them, — nay,  we  are 
ready  to  retire  from  our  places  when  better  teachers  can  be  found  to 
fill  them.  We  derive,  it  is  true,  our  daily  bread  from  school-keeping, 
but  it  is  better  that  our  bodies  should  be  pinched  with  hunger  than 
that  the  souls  of  children  should  starve  for  want  of  mental  nourish- 
ment; and  we  should  be  unworthy  of  the  husks  which  the  swine  do 
eat,  if  we  could  prefer  our  own  emolument  or  comfort  to  the  intellec- 
tual and  moral  culture  of  the  rising  generation.  We  give  you  our  hand 
and  our  heart  for  the  glorious  work  of  improving  the  schools  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, while  we  scorn  the  baseness  of  the  men  who  would  appeal 
to  our  love  of  gain,  or  of  ease,  to  seduce  us  from  the  path  of  duty." 
This  statement  does  no  more  than  justice  to  the  noble  conduct  of  the 


198  ME.  MANN'S  REMARKS  AT  BRIDGEWATER. 

great  body  of  teachers  in  Massachusetts.  To  be  sure,  there  always 
have  been  some  who  have  opposed  the  Normal  Schools,  and  who  will, 
probably,  continue  to  oppose  them  as  long  as  they  live,  lest  they 
themselves  should  be  superseded  by  a  class  of  competent  teachers. 
These  are  they  who  would  arrest  education  where  it  is;  because  they 
cannot  keep  up  with  it,  or  overtake  it  in  its  onward  progress.  But  the 
wheels  of  education  are  rolling  on,  and  they  who  will  not  go  with  them 
must  go  under  them. 

The  Normal  Schools  were  supposed  by  some  to  stand  in  an  antago- 
nistic relation  to  academies  and  select  schools;  and  some  teachers  of 
academies  and  select  schools  have  opposed  them.  They  declare  that 
they  can  make  as  good  teachers  as  Normal  Schools  can.  But,  sir, 
academies  and  select  schools  have  existed  in  this  State,  in  great  num- 
bers, for  more  than  half  a  century.  A  generation  of  school-teachers 
does  not  last,  at  the  extent,  more  than  three  or  four  years;  so  that  a 
dozen  generations  of  teachers  have  passed  through  our  Public  Schools 
within  the  last  fifty  years.  Now,  if  the  academies  and  high  schools 
can  supply  an  adequate  number  of  school-teachers,  why  have  they  not 
done  it?  We  have  waited  half  a  century  for  them.  Let  them  not  com- 
plain of  us,  because  we  are  unwilling  to  wait  half  a  century  more. 
Academies  are  good  in  their  place;  colleges  are  good  in  their  place. 
Both  have  done  invaluable  service  to  the  cause  of  education.  The 
standard  of  intelligence  is  vastly  higher  now  than  it  would  have  been 
without  their  aid;  but  they  have  not  provided  a  sufficiency  of  com- 
petent teachers;  and  if  they  perform  their  appropriate  duties  hereafter, 
as  they  have  done  heretofore,  they  cannot  supply  them;  and  I  cannot 
forbear,  Mr.  President,  to  express  my  firm  conviction,  that  if  the  work 
is  to  be  left  in  their  hands,  we  never  can  have  a  supply  of  competent 
teachers  for  our  Common  Schools,  without  a  perpetual  Pentecost  of 
miraculous  endowments. 

But  if  any  teacher  of  an  academy  had  a  right  to  be  jealous  of  the 
Normal  Schools,  it  was  a  gentleman  now  before  me,  who,  at  the  time 
when  the  Bridgewater  Normal  School  came  into  his  town,  and  planted 
itself  by  the  path  which  led  to  his  door,  and  offered  to  teach  gratu- 
itously such  of  the  young  men  and  women  attending  his  school,  as  had 
proposed  to  become  teachers  of  Common  Schools,  instead  of  opposing 
it,  acted  with  a  high  and  magnanimous  regard  to  the  great  interests  of 
humanity.  So  far  from  opposing,  he  gave  his  voice,  his  vote,  and  his 
purse,  for  the  establishment  of  the  school,  whose  benefits  you,  my 
young  friends,  have  since  enjoyed.  (Great  applause.)  Don't  applaud 
yet,  said  Mr.  Mann,  for  I  have  better  things  to  tell  of  him  than  this.  In 
the  winter  session  of  the  Legislature  of  1840,  it  is  well  known  that  a 
powerful  attack  was  made,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  upon  the 
Board  of  Education,  the  Normal  Schools,  and  all  the  improvements 
which  had  then  been  commenced,  and  which  have  since  produced  such 
beneficent  and  abundant  fruits.  It  was  proposed  to  abolish  the  Board 
of  Education,  and  to  go  back  to  the  condition  of  things  in  1837.  It  was 
proposed  to  abolish  the  Normal  Schools,  and  to  throw  back  with  in- 
dignity, into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Dwight,  the  money  he  had  given  for 
their  support. 

That  attack  combined  all  the  elements  of  opposition  which  selfish- 
ness and  intolerance  had  created, — whether  latent  or  patent.  It  availed 
itself  of  the  argument  of  expense.  It  appealed  invidiously  to  the  pride 
of  teachers.  It  menaced  Prussian  despotism  as  the  natural  conse- 
quence of  imitating  Prussia  in  preparing  teachers  for  schools.  It  fo- 
mented political  partisanship.  It  invoked  religious  bigotry.  It  united 
them  all  into  one  phalanx,  animated  by  various  motives,  but  intent 
upon  a  single  object.  The  gentleman  to  whom  I  have  referred  was  then 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  Chairman  of  the  Com- 


MB.  MANN'S  REMAKKS  AT  BRIUCEWATER.  199 

mittee  on  Education,  and  he,  in  company  with  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Greene, 
of  New  Bedford,  made  a  minority  report,  and  during  the  debate  which 
followed,  he  defended  the  Board  of  Education  so  ably,  and  vindicated 
the  necessity  of  Normal  Schools  and  other  improvements  so  convinc- 
ingly, that  their  adversaries  were  foiled,  and  these  institutions  were 
saved.  The  gentleman  to  whom  I  refer  is  the  Hon.  JOHN  A.  SHAW,  now 
Superintendent  of  schools  in  New  Orleans. 

[Prolonged  cheers; — and  the  pause  made  by  Mr.  Mann,  afforded  an  opportunity  to 
Mr.  Shaw,  in  his  modest  and  unpretending;  manner,  to  disclaim  the  active  and  effi- 
cient agency  which  he  had  had  in  rescuing  the  Normal  Schools  from  destruction  before 
they  had  had  an  opportunity  to  commend  themselves  to  the  public  by  their  works ; — 
but  all  this  only  increased  the  animation  of  the  company,  who  appeared  never  before 
to  have  had  a  chance  to  pay  off  any  portion  of  their  debt  of  gratitude.  After  silence 
was  restored,  Mr.  Shaw  said  that  every  passing  year  enforced  upon  him  the  lesson 
of  the  importance  and  value  of  experience  in  school-keeping.  Long  as  he  had  taught, 
he  felt  himself  improved  by  the  teachings  of  observation  and  practice ;  and  he  must 
therefore  express  his  joy  and  gratitude  at  the  establishment  and  the  prosperity  of  the 
school  at  that  place,  whatever  might  be  the  personal  consequences  to  himself.] 

Nor,  continued  Mr.  Mann,  is  this  the  only  instance  of  noble  and  gen- 
erous conduct  which  we  are  bound  this  day  to  acknowledge.  I  see  be- 
fore me  a  gentleman  who,  though  occupying  a  station  in  the  education- 
al world  far  above  any  of  the  calamities  or  the  vicissitudes  that  can 
befall  the  Common  Schools, — though,  pecuniarily  considered,  it  is  a 
matter  of  entire  indifference  to  him  whether  the  Common  Schools 
flourish  or  decline, — yet,  from  the  beginning,  and  especially  in  the 
crisis  to  which  I  have  just  adverted,  came  to  our  rescue,  and  gave  all 
his  influence,  as  a  citizen  and  as  a  teacher,  to  the  promotion  of  our 
cause;  and  whom  those  who  may  resort  hither,  from  year  to  year,  so 
long  as  this  building  shall  stand,  will  have  occasion  to  remember,  not 
only  with  warm  emotions  of  the  heart,  but,  during  the  wintry  season 
of  the  year,  with  warm  sensations  of  the  body  also.*  I  refer  to  Mr. 
GEO.  B.  EMERSON. 

[Mr.  Emerson  was  now  warmly  cheered,  until  he  rose,  and  in  a  heartfelt  address 
of  a  few  moments,  expressed  his  interest  in  the  school,  and  in  the  cause  of  education, 
which  he  begged  the  young  teachers  not  to  consider  as  limited  to  this  imperfect  stage 
of  our  being.] 

These,  said  Mr.  Mann,  are  some  of  the  incidents  of  our  early  history. 
The  late  events  which  have  resulted  in  the  generous  donations  of  in- 
dividuals, and  in  the  patronage  of  the  Legislature,  for  the  erection  of 
this,  and  another  edifice  at  Westfield,  as  a  residence  and  a  home  for 
the  Normal  Schools, — these  events,  I  shall  consult  my  own  feelings, 
and  perhaps  I  may  add,  the  dignity  and  forbearance  which  belong  to 
a  day  of  triumph,  in  passing  by  without  remark. 

[This  part  of  the  history,  however,  was  not  allowed  to  be  lost.  As  soon  as  the  Sec- 
retary had  taken  his  seat,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Waterston,  who  had  been  instrumental  in  get- 
ting up  the  subscription  to  erect  the  two  school-houses,  arose,  and  eloquently  com- 
pleted the  history.  He  stated,  in  brief,  that  the  idea  of  providing  suitable  buildings 
for  the  Normal  Schools  originated  with  some  thirty  or  forty  friends  of  popular  edu- 
cation, who,  without  distinction  of  sect  or  party,  had  met,  in  Boston,  in  the  winter  of 
1844-5,  to  express  their  sympathy  with  Mr.  Mann  in  the  vexatious  conflict  which  he 
had  so  successfully  maintained ;  and  who  desired,  in  some  suitable  way,  to  express 
their  approbation  of  his  course  in  the  conduct  of  the  great  and  difficult  work  of  re- 
forming our  Common  Schools.  At  this  meeting,  it  •was  at  first  proposed  to  bestow 
upon  Mr.  Mann  some  token  evincive  of  the  personal  and  public  regard  of  its  mem- 
bers ;  but,  at  a  subsequent  meeting,  it  was  suggested  that  it  would  be  far  more  grate- 
ful and  acceptable  to  him  to  furnish  some  substantial  and  efficient  aid  in  carrying 
forward  the  great  work  in  which  he  had  engaged,  and  in  removing  those  obstacles 
and  hinderances  both  to  his  own  success  and  to  the  progress  of  the  cause,  which  noth- 
ing but  an  expenditure  of  money  could  effect.  No  way  seemed  so  well  adapted  to  this 
purpose  as  the  placing  of  the  Normal  Schools  upon  a  firm  and  lasting  basis,  by  fur- 
nishing them  with  suitable  and  permanent  buildings ;  and  the  persons  present  there- 
upon pledged  themselves  to  furnish  $5000,  and  to  ask  the  Legislature  to  furnish  a 
like  sum  for  this  important  purpose.  The  grant  was  cheerfully  made  by  the  Legisla- 
ture, whose  good-will  has  since  been  further  expressed  by  a  liberal  grant,  to  meet  the 
expenses  of  those  temporary  Normal  Schools,  called  Teachers'  Institutes.  Mr.  Mann, 
who  had  not  yet  taken  his  seat,  then  continued  as  follows:] 

*Mr.  Emerson  has  furnished,  at  his  own  expense,  the  furnace  by  which  the  new 
school-house  is  to  be  warmed. 


200  MR.  MANN'S  REMARKS  AT  BRIDGEWATER. 

I  have,  my  young  friends,  former  and  present  pupils  of  the  school, 
but  a  single  word  more  to  say  to  you  on  this  occasion.  It  is  a  word 
of  caution  and  admonition.  You  have  enjoyed,  or  are  enjoying,  ad- 
vantages superior  to  most  of  those  engaged  in  our  Common  Schools. 
Never  pride  yourselves  upon  these  advantages.  Think  of  them  often, 
but  always  as  motives  to  greater  diligence  and  exertion,  not  as  points 
of  superiority.  As  you  go  forth,  after  having  enjoyed  the  bounty  of  the 
State,  you  will  probably  be  subjected  to  a  rigid  examination.  Submit 
to  it  without  complaint.  More  will  sometimes  be  demanded  of  you 
than  is  reasonable.  Bear  it  meekly,  and  exhaust  your  time  and 
strength  in  performing  your  duties,  rather  than  in  vindicating  your 
rights.  Be  silent,  even  when  you  are  misrepresented.  Turn  aside  when 
opposed,  rather  than  confront  opposition  with  resistance.  Bear  and 
forbear,  not  defending  yourselves,  so  much  as  trusting  to  your  works 
to  defend  you.  Yet,  in  counseling  you  thus,  I  would  not  be  understood 
to  be  a  total  non-resistant, — a  perfectly  passive,  non-elastic  sand-bag, 
in  society;  but  I  would  not  have  you  resist  until  the  blow  be  aimed, 
not  so  much  at  you,  as,  through  you,  at  the  sacred  cause  of  human 
improvement,  in  which  you  are  engaged, — a  point  at  which  forbearance 
would  be  allied  to  crime. 

To  the  young  ladies  who  are  here — teachers  and  those  who  are  pre- 
paring themselves  to  become  teachers, — I  would  say,  that,  if  there  be 
any  human  being  whom  I  ever  envied,  it  is  they.  As  I  have  seen  tEem 
go,  day  after  day,  and  month  after  month,  with  inexhaustible  cheerful- 
ness and  gentleness,  to  their  obscure,  unobserved,  and  I  might  almost 
say,  unrequited  labors,  I  have  thought  that  I  would  rather  fill  their 
place,  than  be  one  in  the  proudest  triumphal  procession  that  ever  re- 
ceived the  acclamations  of  a  city,  though  I  myself  were  the  crowned 
victor  of  the  ceremonies.  May  heaven  forgive  them  for  the  only  sin 
which,  as  I  hope,  they  ever  commit, — that  of  tempting  me  to  break  the 
commandment,  by  coveting  the  blissfulness  and  purity  of  their  quiet 
and  secluded  virtues. 


ADDRESS 


DEDICATION   OF   THE  BRIDGEWATER   STATE   NORMAL 
SCHOOL-HOUSE, 

BY  WILLIAM   G.   BATES, 

August  19th,  1846. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Education,  Teachers,  and  Friends: 

The  sagacious  enactment  of  the  Legislature  of  1845,  and  the  en- 
lightened liberality  of  philanthropic  individuals,  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Board  of  Education  the  means  of  erecting  two  edifices  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  State  Normal  Schools.  One  of  those  edifices  is 
now  completed;  and  this  day  it  is  to  be  set  apart  to  the  uses  for 
which  it  was  designed.  The  occasion  has  been  deemed  one  of  suffi- 
cient importance  to  justify  a  public  and  joyful  commemoration;  and, 
at  the  request  of  the  other  members  of  the  Board,  and  by  their  ap- 
pointment, I  appear  before  you,  to  bear  a  part  in  the  performances  of 
the  day.  We  have  assembled,  then,  to  dedicate  a  school-house!  The 
executive  authority  of  this  ancient  Commonwealth,  the  Board  of  Ed- 
ucation, the  wise  and  the  learned  from  the  different  sections  of  the 
State,  and  the  friends  of  progressive  improvement  in  the  cause  of  ed- 
ucation, without  regard  to  conventional  lines  or  state  boundaries,  have 
convened  to  rejoice  in  the  dedication  of  a  building  which  henceforth 
is  to  be  appropriated  to  the  education  of  those  who  are  to  instruct  the 
children  of  the  State  in  the  rudiments  of  learning. 

"Is  not  this,"  methinks  I  hear  an  objector  exclaim,  "a  trivial  mat- 
ter? Are  there  not  other  and  more  appropriate  occasions  of  rejoicing? 
Are  there  not  bright  days  in  our  national  calendar,  events  in  our  his- 
tory, to  fire  the  soul  of  song,  and  to  swell  the  anthem  of  joy?  Have 
you  no  voice  of  praise  for  that  recent  consummation  which  has  ex- 
tended our  institutions,  in  peaceful  perpetuity,  to  the  distant  shores 
of  the  Pacific?  Give  over,  then,  this  inapposite  attempt  to  dignify  so 
unimportant  an  event  as  that  which  has  called  us  together  this  day." 

Every  nation  has  its  own,  its  peculiar  days  of  rejoicing.  The  birth 
of  a  prince,  the  accession  of  a  king,  the  yielding  up  of  a  charter,  the 
overthrow  of  a  dynasty,  have  swelled  the  hearts  of  many  an  oppressed 
and  suffering  people.  Our  own  country  has  even  nobler  themes  than 
these.  But,  if  it  be  the  object  of  social  life  to  increase  our  pleasures 
here;  if  the  cultivation  of  our  moral  powers  is  to  minister  to  our  en- 
joyments hereafter;  if  the  aim  of  political  institutions  is  to  secure  to 
a  people  the  inalienable  rights  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness, there  can  be  no  more  heart-cheering  vision  than  to  behold  a 
rich  and  powerful  State  solemnly  pledging  its  wealth  and  its  energies 
to  the  promotion  of  a  cause  upon  which  all  these  interests  depend. 
Indeed,  of  all  the  events  in  our  historic  annals  of  which  orators  have 
discoursed  and  poets  have  sung,  there  is  not  one,  worthy  of  a  lasting 
commemoration,  which  is  not  intimately  connected  with  the  cause 
which  has  convened  us  to-day.  Take,  for  example,  that  ever-memorable 
event,  which  stands  out  in  our  history  as  the  brightest  and  the  noblest, 
since  the  great  triumph  of  Columbus,  and  ask  yourselves  why  we  cele- 
brate the  anniversary  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  Is  it  that  a  few 
adventurers  succeeded  in  establishing  a  colony  which  has  been 


202  DEDICATORY  ADDRESS  AT  BRIDGEWATEB. 

ripened,  by  subsequent  wisdom,  into  this  great  empire?  that,  driven  by 
persecution  from  their  native  land,  they  fled  to  the  solitude  of  a  new 
continent,  and  converted  a  refuge  from  present  distress  into  an  asylum 
for  the  oppressed  of  every  clime?  The  feelings  which  animated  them 
were  nobler  than  these,  and  their  plans  more  enduring.  They  came 
hither  to  found  a  State!  All  their  desires  and  their  energies  tended 
to  this  one  object.  Danger  could  not  appal,  suffering  could  not  deter 
them  from  its  pursuit.  When  they  left  the  harbor  of  Delft-haven,  and 
while  their  frail  bark  staggered  under  the  fearful  billows,  their  breasts 
were  laboring  for  the  development  of  those  great  principles  of  govern- 
ment which  were  destined  to  win  for  them  the  gratitude  of  a  world. 
When  they  landed  upon  the  rock  of  Plymouth,  they  stood  upon  the 
territory  of  a  civilized  state;  and  the  sun  which  woke  the  first  morn- 
ing of  their  occupancy,  shone  upon  a  regularly  organized  government. 

Nor,  amid  the  gloom  which  enshrouded  them,  and  the  dangers  which 
threatened  to  ingulf  their  infant  colony,  did  they  falter  in  the  designs 
which  had  their  birth  in  suffering.  Having  elicited  the  great  principle 
of  the  capability  of  man  for  the  duties  of  self-government,  they  set 
forth,  at  once,  to  provide  the  means  of  demonstrating  that  capability; 
and,  in  the  midst  of  a  mighty  struggle  for  the  very  existence  of  their 
colony,  they  provided  by  enactment,  within  the  first  quarter  of  a 
century  of  its  existence,  for  the  future  education  of  its  children. 

The  first  provision  for  public  instruction  in  the  colony  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  was  passed  in  the  year  1642.  Five  years  after,  in  1647, 
another  act  was  passed,  securing,  still  more  effectually,  the  education 
of  the  young;  but  in  the  year  1692,  just  two  centuries  after  the  discov- 
ery of  this  continent,  the  means  of  diffusing  the  light  of  learning  and 
religion,  not  only  throughout  that  continent,  but  throughout  the  world, 
were  provided  in  the  enactments  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.*  Other  pa- 
triots and  other  sages,  before  them,  had  labored  earnestly  for  the  dis- 
semination of  intelligence — and,  in  the  early  ages,  some  of  them  had 
fallen  martyrs  to  their  zeal  in  this  noblest  cause — but  it  was  reserved 
for  "the  Fathers"  to  ingraft  that  great  principle  on  the  laws  of  a 
country,  as  a  maxim  of  government,  that  all  the  people  of  a  State 
should  6e  educated  by  the  State. 

This  provision  is  entitled  "An  Act  for  the  settlement  and  support  of 
ministers  and  schoolmasters."  "The  Fathers"  evidently  considered 
Learning  to  be  the  handmaid  of  Religion,  and  while,  in  the  law,  they 
provided  for  the  former,  by  making  it  the  duty  of  the  magistracy  to 
supply  any  want  of  the  stated  means  of  grace  by  the  appointment  of  a 
suitable  pastor  at  the  expense  of  the  neglectful  town,  they  secured  the 
promotion  of  learning  by  heavy  penalties  for  each  case  of  neglect. 

But  then,  as  now,  there  were  enlightened  men  whose  zeal  and  intel- 
ligence were  in  advance  of  their  age.  The  act  of  1701,t  after  reciting 
the  former  act,  proceeds  as  follows:  "The  observance  of  which  whole- 
some and  necessary  law  is  shamefully  neglected  by  divers  towns,  and 
the  penalty  thereof  not  required,  tending  greatly  to  the  nourishment 
of  ignorance  and  irreligion,  whereof  grievous  complaint  is  made."  It 
then  provides  for  the  redress  of  these  evils,  and  enacts  that  the  penal- 
ties for  future  neglect  shall  be  doubled;  that  every  grammar-master 
shall  be  approved  by  the  minister  of  the  town  and  the  ministers  of  two 
adjoining  towns,  or  any  two  of  them;  that  no  minister  of  any  town 
shall  perform  such  services,  as  a  teacher,  as  to  discharge  the  town 
from  the  performance  of  its  duties  under  the  act;  and  that  justices  of 
the  peace,  and  all  grand-jurors,  shall  diligently  inquire  and  true  pre- 
sentment make  of  all  breaches  and  neglect  of  the  same,  that  due  pros- 
ecution may  be  made  against  the  offenders. 

•Province  Laws,  c.  XIII.  p.  245.  tProvince  Laws,  c.  LXXXIX.  p.  871. 


DEDICATORY  ADDRESS  AT  BRIDOEWATER.  203 

Nor  were  they  more  zealous  In  providing  the  means  of  instruction 
for  the  rising  generation,  than  they  were  solicitous  as  to  the  charac- 
ters of  the  teachers;  and  their  wisdom,  in  this  respect,  far  transcends 
the  legislation  of  modern  days.  We  provide,  in  reference  to  our  secur- 
ity in  the  qualification  of  teachers,  that  they  shall  be  examined  by  a 
competent  board  of  judges,  and,  if  not  found  to  be  qualified,  why,  then, 
that  their  employers  shall  be  under  no  obligation  to  pay  them  for  their 
services.  Under  the  operation  of  this  law,  a  grossly  incompetent 
teacher,  who  has  been  rejected  for  the  want  of  proper  moral  or  literary 
qualifications,  may  form  the  minds  and  morals  of  our  children,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  standard  of  character;  and  yet,  if  his  employers  are  so 
inclined,  he  may  receive  a  reward  for  his  work  of  evil.  But  even  this 
safeguard  applies  only  to  the  public  schools.  In  our  academies,  and  in 
the  numerous  private  schools  with  which,  unfortunately,  our  country 
abounds,  there  is  no  legal  check  upon  the  injury  which  a  bad  man  may 
work  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  those  who,  by  misjudging  parents, 
may  be  committed  to  his  charge.  No  matter  how  much  he  may  lack 
in  intelligence  or  in  morals;  no  matter  how  positively  depraved  he  may 
be  in  his  sentiments  or  in  his  conduct;  he  is,  nevertheless,  a  teacher 
under  the  law,  or  rather  in  spite  of  the  law,  and  may  exert  a  most 
deleterious  influence  upon  the  minds  of  those  whose  education  should 
be  under  its  especial  guardianship. 

Not  such  were  the  views  of  those  wise  men  who  have  transmitted  to 
us  that  glorious  system,  under  the  operation  of  which  the  hitherto  dis- 
cordant elements  of  government  have  moved  on  in  unbroken  harmony. 
They  considered  the  teacher  as  the  former  of  the  man;  and  that,  to 
secure  a  virtuous  and  an  intelligent  community,  it  was  necessary,  not 
only  to  provide  the  means  of  good  instruction,  but  to  guard  against 
the  influences  of  bad.  Their  opinions  on  this  subject  were  fully  and 
forcibly  expressed  in  the  act  of  1712,  which  is  known  as  the  "Refor- 
mation Act."*  Its  preamble  recites,  that,  "forasmuch  as  the  well  ed- 
ucating and  instructing  of  children  and  youth,  in  families  and  schools, 
are  a  necessary  means  to  propagate  religion  and  good  manners,  and 
the  conversation  and  example  of  heads  of  families  and  schools  having 
great  influence  on  those  under  their  care  and  government,  to  an  imi- 
tation therof,"  no  person  "shall  presume  to  set  up  or  keep  a  school,'' 
without  the  allowance  and  approbation  of  the  proper  authority;  and, 
the  law  continues,  if  any  person  "shall  be  so  hardy"  as  to  offend 
against  its  provisions,  he  shall  forfeit  a  heavy  penalty,  to  be  inflicted 
as  long  as  his  school  shall  continue,  and  as  often  as  he  may  be  prose- 
cuted therefor. 

Such  were  the  views  and  feelings  of  the  Pilgrims.  Such  were  the 
objects  at  which  they  aimed,  and  the  means  by  which  those  objects 
were  sought  to  be  accomplished.  And  when  we  consider  the  wise  adap- 
tation of  the  means  to  the  end,  when  we  contemplate  the  sure  and 
rapid  progress  which  has  marked  our  course  as  a  nation,  the  more 
sure,  and  the  more  rapid,  accordingly  as  we  have  adhered  to  and 
maintained  those  principles  which  they  established — who  shall  say 
that  the  first  vision  of  a  free  and  an  independent  republic  did  not 
break  upon  their  sight,  while  they  were  tossing  upon  the  ocean  in  the 
cabin  of  the  May  Flower? 

If  we  are  correct  in  the  opinion  which  has  been  incidentally  ex- 
pressed, and  which  has  obtained  a  general  credence  through  the 
world,  that  the  security  of  our  free  institutions  depends  upon  the  en- 
actment of  the  provisions  for  the  universal  education  of  the  people,  at 
the  expense  of  the  State,  it  surely  cannot  be  inappropriate  to  the  pres- 
ent occasion,  nor  can  the  occasion  itself  be  trifling  and  unimportant, 

•Province  Laws,  c.  CV.  p.  398. 


204  DEDICATOBY  ADDBE88  AT  BRIDGEWATEE. 

which  leads  us  to  consider  the  manner  in  which  that  provision  affects 
the  people  in  relation  to  our  government.  If  the  consideration  sub- 
serves no  other  purpose  than  to  renew  our  recollections  of  those  whose 
stout  hands  and  whose  stouter  hearts  provided  for  us  this  goodly  land, 
it  is,  at  least,  but  a  fitting  tribute  paid  at  the  call  of  gratitude.  But  the 
consideration  may  produce  a  more  useful  result;  and,  as  Old  Mortality, 
among  the  tombs  of  the  Covenanters,  "considered  himself  as  fulfilling 
a  sacred  duty,  while  renewing  to  the  eyes  of  posterity  the  decaying 
emblems  of  the  zeal  and  sufferings  of  their  forefathers,  and  thereby 
trimming,  as  it  were,  the  beacon-light  which  was  to  warn  future  gen- 
erations to  defend  their  religion  even  unto  blood,"  so  we,  in  the  con- 
templation of  this  noblest  of  the  monuments  of  the  Pilgrims,  may  be 
led  to  emulate  them  in  their  zeal,  to  catch  the  fire  of  their  devotion, 
and  to  resolve  to  hand  down  to  future  ages  this  splendid  memorial  of 
their  undying  fame. 

The  country  from  which  the  Pilgrims  fled  is  a  monarchy.  In  it  the 
three  essential  modifications  of  government  are  arranged  with  so  nice 
an  adaptation  to  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  as  to  make  the  British 
constitution  the  wonder  of  the  world.  There,  is  the  freedom  of  the 
press!  There,  is  the  trial  by  jury!  There,  every  man's  property  is  se- 
cured to  him  under  the  provisions  of  the  law,  and  every  man's  house 
is  his  castle.  There,  the  path  to  wealth  is  open  to  every  traveler,  and 
honors  and  rewards  are  ready  to  be  showered  upon  the  successful  and 
the  deserving.  How  sedulously  they  labor  to  promote  their  national 
prosperity!  And,  to  secure  that  object,  how  carefully  they  watch  over 
the  welfare  of  those  who  may  become  their  monarchs!  The  birth  of  a 
royal  infant  is  announced  as  a  subject  of  national  congratulation,  and 
the  announcement  is  hailed  with  a  response  of  national  enthusiasm. 
The  most  experienced  and  celebrated  physicians  watch  over  even  its 
healthful  hours,  and  ladies  of  rank  and  fortune  are  proud  to  be  its 
nurses.  Learning  waits  upon  and  calls  forth  the  development  of  its 
intellect,  and  science  strengthens  its  powers  by  well-adapted  and  ju- 
dicious exercise.  Learned  treatises  and  controversial  publications  dis- 
cuss the  means  for  the  cultivation  of  all  its  faculties,  and  the  whole 
nation  watches  for  its  progress  with  more  than  a  parental  anxiety. 
And  why?  Because  this  infant  may  be  a  component  part  of  their  own 
government;  and  they  know  how  much  the  happiness  and  welfare  of 
a  people  depend  upon  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  their  rulers. 

Nor  is  their  zeal  for  the  blessings  of  a  good  government  expended 
in  their  efforts  for  the  education  of  the  executive  power  only.  Their 
judicial  and  their  legislative  departments  are  equally  the  objects  of 
their  fostering  care.  Of  their  judiciary,  it  is  sufficient  to  remark,  that 
the  exorbitant  salaries  of  the  office,  and  the  pension  which  follows  its 
resignation,  have  ever  called  the  highest  talent  from  the  bar  to  the 
bench,  and  made  the  judges  of  England,  from  the  earliest  ages,  the 
true  expounders  of  the  law  and  the  pure  ministers  of  justice. 

Of  the  Legislative  branch,  the  House  of  Lords  is  composed  princi- 
pally of  those  who  derive,  from  a  long  line  of  ancestry,  the  office  of 
hereditary  rulers  of  the  realm.  And,  to  guard  against  the  deteriora- 
tions which  inevitably  follow  the  accident  of  birth,  the  most  distin- 
guished citizens  of  the  nation  are  promoted  to  the  peerage,  to  super- 
add  to  the  distinctions  of  rank  the  dignity  of  intelligence. 

The  remaining  branch  of  the  Legislature  consists  of  that  body  of 
men  which  is  designed  to  represent  the  great  interests  of  the  people. 
But  so  guarded  is  the  election  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons by  the  controlling  powers  of  the  crown  and  the  peers,  and  the 
dictates  of  a  cautious  and  wary  policy,  that  the  people  of  England  de- 
pend, for  their  immunities,  rather  upon  the  opinion  of  the  higher  es- 


DEDICATORY  ADDRESS  AT  BRIDGEWATER.  205 

tales  of  the  realm,  than  upon  the  influence  of  their  own  voice  in  the 
national  councils. 

I  refer  to  these  principles  of  British  legislation  with  no  view  to  the 
consideration  of  their  expediency  and  wisdom.  I  advert  to  them  only 
to  show  with  what  solicitude  they  endeavor  to  guard  against  the  irrup- 
tions of  ignorance,  and  with  what  feelings  they  regard  educational 
training,  even  in  a  monarchical  government. 

If  such  is  the  policy  of  England,  what  should  be  that  of  the  United 
States!  If  such  is  the  practice  of  a  monarchy,  what  should  be  that  of 
a  republic!  If  such  are  the  feelings  of  a  people  where,  although  the 
rights  of  man  are  secured,  yet  his  interests  are  subordinate  to  the 
rights  of  property,  what  should  be  the  feelings  of  that  people  whose 
system  of  government  recognizes  man  as  the  very  organ  of  its  action, 
and  his  interests  as  the  choicest  objects  of  its  care! 

When  our  fathers  fled  from  religious  persecution,  to  seek  the  "pure 
shrine"  of  faith,  they  sought  also  the  blessings  of  civil  liberty.  They 
rejected  the  long-cherished  doctrine  of  usurped  agency,  and  gave  back 
to  man  his  heaven-born  birthright.  They  repudiated  the  cumbrous 
machinery  of  a  system  which,  while  it  protected  his  rights,  pressed 
like  an  incubus  upon  his  interests,  and  they  relied  upon  a  scheme  of 
self-government  founded  upon  his  intelligence  and  virtue.  And,  truly, 
it  was  the  sublimest  conception  which  ever  broke  upon  the  mind  of 
a  patriotic  statesman.  Conceive,  if  you  can,  of  an  intelligent  people, 
"nursed  up  from  brighter  influences,  with  souls  enlarged  to  the  di- 
mensions of  spacious  art  and  high  knowledge,"  cognizant  of  their 
rights,  governed  by  their  duties,  demanding  nothing  wrong,  yielding 
ever  to  the  right,  just  in  all  the  relations  of  private  life,  and  acting 
upon  these  principles  in  all  their  foreign  intercourse;  and  where  is 
the  Utopia  which  is  the  abode  of  a  more  well-imagined  happiness? 

And  yet,  bright  as  the  conception  is,  it  is  the  home  designed  for  us 
by  our  heroic  fathers.  It  is  no  Oceana,  it  is  no  Utopia.  The  realiza- 
tion of  this  plan  is  in  our  own  power;  and  our  approach  to  it  will  be 
proportionate  to  the  ardor  of  our  zeal  and  the  warmth  of  our  devotion. 

Have  we  been  true  to  our  obligations  in  the  performance  of  the 
duties  which  have  been  assigned  to  us  to  perform?  Have  we  imitated 
even  the  zeal  and  the  wisdom  of  a  monarchy? 

Who  are  our  rulers?  Are  they  those  who  claim  a  descent  from  a 
long  line  of  illustrious  ancestors?  Are  they  those  who  by  their  wealth 
clothe  themselves  with  the  right  to  rule?  Or  are  they  those  who  pur- 
chase the  offices  of  the  State  as  in  the  most  venal  of  the  days  of  the 
Roman  State? 

Who  are  the  persons,  that,  in  this  country,  are  to  stand  in  the  place 
of  the  monarch?  Every  native-born  male  child  in  the  Union  is  the 
heir-apparent  to  the  throne  of  this  great  empire.  Who  are  to  compose 
our  House  of  Lords?  Every  citizen  of  the  age  of  thirty  years,  who 
shall  have  resided  within  the  United  States  for  the  space  of  nine 
years,  is  eligible  to  that  exalted  station.  Who  are  to  constitute  that 
popular  branch,  which  in  England  is  denominated  the  House  of  Com- 
mons? The  age  of  twenty-five  years,  seven  of  which  shall  have  been 
passed  within  the  limits  of  the  Union,  is  a  legal  qualification  for  the 
people's  representative.  These  are  the  persons  who  together  with  the 
judicial  department,  form  the  three  constituent  parts  of  the  most  com- 
plex government  upon  earth.  These  are  the  persons  to  whom  are  in- 
trusted those  powers  which  are  guarded  with  so  much  care  by  the 
educational  policy  of  a  monarchy. 

And  now,  let  us  ask  if  we  rival  the  wisdom  of  this  policy?  Are  the 
youth,  the  future  presidents,  and  senators,  and  representatives  of  this 


206  DEDICATORY  ADDBES&  AT  BKIDGEWATEB. 

country,  thus  carefully  instructed  in  a  knowledge  of  those  duties 
which  they  will  and  must  be  called  upon  to  perform?  Are  they  trained, 
in  their  early  years,  according  to  the  great  laws  of  health,  so  as  to 
produce  "a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body?"  Do  the  wise  and  the  learned 
watch  over  and  guide  their  intellectual  progress,  and  imbue  their  im- 
pressible minds  with  the  love  of  virtue?  Or  are  they  not,  rather,  suf- 
fered "to  come  up,"  like  neglected  plants,  ignorant  of  the  relations  of 
civil  life,  and  unknowing  of  those  important  trusts  which  are  to  be 
committed  to  them?  Who  can  well  estimate  the  vast  responsibilities 
which  rest  upon  the  conduct  of  these  rulers!  How  fraught  may  be 
their  conduct  with  good;  how  pregnant  with  evil!  Their  acts  may  de- 
stroy the  balance  of  this  well-adjusted  confederacy,  and  array  brother 
against  brother  in  the  strife  of  blood.  Their  conduct  may  embroil  na- 
tion with  nation,  and  convert  our  smiling  fields  into  the  Golgothas  of 
battle.  Their  decision  may  change  the  industrial  character  of  the 
whole  people,  and  turn  thrift  into  idleness,  and  plenteousness  into 
famine.  Their  examples  may  exalt  vice,  debase  virtue,  and  give  re- 
spectability and  character  even  unto  crime.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
powerful  to  good,  and  strong  against  evil,  they  can  unseal  the  hidden 
springs  of  their  country's  prosperity,  and  read  the  nation's  gratitude 
in  the  nation's  eyes. 

But  let  us  advance  more  directly  to  what  is  suggested  by  the  oc- 
casion, and  contemplate  this  subject  in  its  relation  to  our  own  State. 
Whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  the  government  of  which  it  forms  a 
component  part,  and  whatever  may  be  our  feelings  or  our  duties  to- 
ward it,  yet,  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  our  first  civil 
obligations  were  assumed,  and  in  its  cause  shall  our  latest  efforts  be 
made. 

Like  that  of  other  States,  the  government  of  Massachusetts  consists 
of  three  departments.  The  Legislative,  consisting  of  our  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives,  enact  those  laws  which  are  intended  to 
secure  our  rights  and  promote  our  welfare.  The  judicial  department 
declares  what  those  laws  are,  and  settles  the  conflicting  rights  of  in- 
dividuals under  them.  The  Executive  power  carries  into  execution  the 
will  of  the  people,  as  thus  expressed  and  declared.  We  have  adopted, 
as  a  part  of  its  system,  the  doctrine  of  universal  suffrage;  and  practi- 
cally, the  avenues  to  office,  as  well  the  highest  as  the  lowest,  are  open 
to  every  citizen.  Such  is  the  theory  of  the  government  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Such  is  that  system  of  laws  and  institutions,  by  which  we 
prosper,  and  under  which  we  live. 

No  well-informed  person  will  deny,  not  merely  how  important,  but 
how  indispensable  is  a  government  of  laws  to  the  prosperity  of  a 
people.  But  still,  there  are  few  who  are  aware  of  the  extent  of  its  in- 
fluence, through  all  the  relations  and  circumstances  of  life.  Indeed, 
there  are  thousands  whose  whole  knowledge  of  its  effects  is  derived 
from  the  experience  of  others.  They  are  not  impleaded  themselves, 
nor  do  they  implead  their  fellows.  They  are  not  charged  with  crime, 
and,  of  course,  feel  no  alarm  at  its  undirected  terrors.  They  know  that 
it  is  around  them,  with  its  invisible  shield,  and  they  inquire,  not 
whence  it  comes,  or  whither  it  goes.  They  regard  it  as  they  do  the 
sun  that  warms,  and  the  air  which  surrounds  them.  They  know  that 
the  sun  will  shine,  and  that  the  atmosphere  will  breathe  around  them 
the  elements  of  life;  and  they  seem  to  consider  that  man,  in  his  im- 
perfect institutions,  is  to  rival  the  wisdom  and  the  beneficence  of  the 
Creator.  When  they  walk  abroad,  they  know  that  the  arm  of  the  law 
is  over  them,  to  protect  them  from  peril.  They  visit,  without  fear,  the 
most  remote  and  sequestered  scenes;  for  they  feel  that  it  will  re- 
strain the  hand  of  violence,  and  blunt  the  steel  of  the  assassin.  They 
repose  in  their  habitations  during  the  long  hours  of  night;  for  the 


DEDICATORY  ADDBES8  AT  BRIDGEWATEB.  207 

law  makes  their  house  their  castle,  and  protects  it,  as  well  against 
secret  mischief  as  open  aggression.  They  consider,  in  short,  that  their 
property  is  protected  by  the  nation's  strength,  and  that  millions  of 
bayonets  are  the  sure  guaranties  for  the  preservation  of  their  liberties. 

There  are,  however,  moral  influences,  resulting  from  the  operatinos 
of  law,  which  are  still  more  striking.  How  does  it  pervade  the  very 
spirit  of  society,  and  control  the  whole  conduct  of  men  in  their  daily 
intercourse!  How  does  it  strengthen  the  sentiment  of  justice  in  their 
hearts,  and  induce  them  to  do  right,  almost  without  volition!  How  it 
extends  even  to  the  domestic  relations — restrains  the  excess  of  pa- 
rental authority,  and  deepens  the  feelings  of  filial  obedience!  How  it 
binds  the  husband  to  the  wife,  in  the  most  endearing  relation,  and 
renders  more  indissoluble  those  holy  ties  which  are  the  unspeakable 
charm  of  social  existence!  And  when,  at  last,  they  feel  that  they  are 
about  to  depart  from  those  who  are  to  live  after  them,  and  to  leave 
them  to  live  on,  without  their  natural  protection,  with  what  confidence 
do  they  turn  from  the  trusts  of  interested  men  to  the  laws  and  insti- 
tutions of  their  country! 

And  yet,  these  laws  and  institutions,  with  all  the  momentous  inter- 
ests which  grow  up  and  flourish  under  them,  depend  for  their  exist- 
ence upon  these  three  co-ordinate  departments  of  the  government. 
They  sprang  forth,  at  first,  full-armed  in  wisdom,  like  Minerva  from 
the  brain  of  power,  but  they  cannot,  like  her,  rely  upon  a  native-born 
immortality.  They  are  the  mere  creations  of  legislative  will,  and  the 
power  which  made  them  can  again  destroy.  Look  at  the  affluence 
which  successful  acquisition  has  concentrated  in  this,  the  richest  of 
the  States.  It  is  held  only  by  a  legal  tenure.  The  law  can  tax  it;  the 
law  can  appropriate  it;  and  what  shall  protecl  it  from  the  inroads  of 
fraud,  and  the  aggressions  of  violence,  if  the  law  were  to  withhold  its 
protecting  arm?  Our  houses  and  our  lands  we  hold,  as  we  imagine,  by 
the  securest  of  all  tenures;  but  a  single  act  of  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  may  destroy  the  muniments  of  our  title,  and  our  respective  por- 
tions of  "the  great  globe  itself"  may  take  to  themselves  the  light 
wings  of  the  morning. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  conceded  that  our  rulers  should  be  both  virtuous 
and  intelligent,  and  yet  that  the  same  necessity  does  not  exist  for  a 
virtuous  and  intelligent  constituency.  This  supposition  assumes  that 
the  principles  of  legislation  are  so  complex  and  intricate,  that  the  peo- 
ple are  to  choose  others  to  do  for  them  those  governmental  acts  of 
which  they  cannot  perceive  the  wisdom.  Such  a  doctrine  is  upheld  in 
other  governments,  in  the  other  hemisphere;  but  it  is  repudiated  by 
the  very  principles  of  republicanism.  As  well  might  the  legislative 
power  be  delegated,  in  perpetuity,  as  well  might  the  offices  of  our 
rulers  depend  upon  the  accident  of  birth,  as  that  the  results  of  their 
authority  should  rest  upon  any  other  foundation  than  the  consent  and 
approval  of  the  people  governed.  We  employ  a  physician,  indeed,  to 
do  for  us  what  we  are  presumed  to  be  unable  to  do  for  ourselves,  and 
we  submit  ourselves,  unarguing,  to  his  guidance.  "What  he  wills,  un- 
argued,  we  obey."  But  in  matters  of  legislation,  however  complicated, 
we  are  presumed  to  be  the  judges.  We  vote  for  a  public  officer  be- 
cause we  know  his  opinions,  and  our  vote,  therefore,  should  be  but  the 
true  expression  of  our  own;  and  we  might,  in  ignorance  of  the  healing 
art,  as  properly  administer  remedies  to  a  diseased  patient,  as,  in  ig- 
norance of  political  information,  thrust  our  nostrums  into  the  body 
politic. 

And  who  that  has  watched  our  legislative  history  does  not  know  that 
the  acts  of  our  rulers  are  but  the  embodiment  of  the  popular  will? 
Who  does  not  know  that  no  legislation  can  be  permanent  or  useful 


208  DEDICATORY  ADDBE88  AT  BRIDGKWATER. 

which  does  not  rest  upon  the  sentiment  of  an  approving  people?  The 
act  may  be  wise  in  its  inception  and  beneficent  in  its  operation;  but 
it  is  the  public  sentiment  alone  which  can  give  it  vitality;  and  unless 
the  public  mind  can  be  made  to  perceive  and  approve  its  wisdom,  it 
will  slumber,  as  though  it  were  useless,  until  another  law  shall  abro- 
gate its  provisions. 

But,  if  it  were  granted  that  ignorant  and  vicious  men  will  choose 
wise  and  virtuous  rulers;  that  those  who  cannot  perceive  the  wisdom 
of  wise  laws  will  yet  acquiesce  in  their  permanency;  in  short,  that  a 
system  of  government  founded  upon  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  the 
people,  and  upheld  by  these  conservative  principles  alone,  has  within 
itself  that  miraculous  efficacy  of  winning  to  it  the  support  of  ignor- 
ance and  vice — still,  let  me  ask  whether,  in  the  choice  of  wise  and 
virtuous  rulers,  we  fulfill  to  the  government  all  the  duties  of  good 
citizens? 

Let  any  one,  who  is  inclined  to  give  an  affirmative  answer,  go  into 
our  courts  of  justice,  and  see  how  those  rights  of  life,  liberty,  and 
property,  which  the  constitution  upholds,  depend  as  much  upon  their 
administration  as  upon  the  laws  themselves!  How  complicated  are 
the  subpects  which  are  presented  at  a  judicial  trial!  How  strangely 
intermingled  are  questions  of  fact  with  the  principles  of  law!  How 
subtle  and  astute  are  the  arguments  of  those  who  often  make  the 
worse  appear  the  better  reason!  How  profoundly  logical  are  the  rea- 
sonings of  the  judge! 

And  then,  too,  how  harrassing  are  often  the  questions  of  evidence! 
The  treacherous  memory,  the  mistaken  apprehensions,  the  corrupt 
misstatements  of  witnesses,  leave  the  truth  in  doubt.  How  adroitly 
the  opposing  counsel  labor  through  a  long  and  searching  examination 
to  unravel  the  web  of  error  and  destroy  the  equipoise  of  a  suspended 
judgment!  Now  all  these  nice  questions  of  fact,  these  applications  of 
law,  these  arguments  of  counsel,  these  reasonings  of  the  court,  and 
this  weighing  in  the  nicest  of  scales  the  conflicting  evidence,  are  to 
be  settled  and  passed  upon  by  a  jury  of  twelve  men,  approved  by  the 
people  and  coming  from  among  the  people!  How  momentous  is  often 
the  result  of  their  opinions!  Property,  liberty,  and  life  itself,  hang 
upon  their  verdicts;  and  yet  how  often  is  it  that  their  verdict  is 
wrong!  And  is  it  not  necessary  that  jurors  should  be  intelligent?  Go 
to  the  litigant,  who  watches  the  progress  of  his  cause  with  an  inten- 
sity of  interest,  and  upon  whose  heart  every  circumstance  of  trial 
tells,  like  the  puncture  of  a  nerve,  and  ask  him  if  his  rights  are  safe 
in  the  hands  of  an  ignorant  jury. 

Recently,  in  one  of  the  counties  of  our  own  Commonwealth,  an  in- 
competent juryman  was  observed  to  slumber  during  the  progress  of 
an  important  trial.  The  fact  was  communicated  by  a  party  to  his 
counsel.  "Let  him  sleep,"  was  the  reply;  "his  dreams  will  be  as  in- 
telligent as  his  waking  thoughts."  "I  believe  it,"  said  the  party,  as  he 
sat  down,  heartsick,  in  his  seat;  and  the  juror  slumbered  till  his  la- 
borious breathing  attracted  the  attention  of  the  judges. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  unjust  loss  of  property,  of  liberty,  or  even  of 
life  itself,  which  alone  should  prompt  us  to  labor  for  the  promotion  of 
increased  intelligence  among  those  who  may  act  upon  our  juries. 
Every  wrong  adjudication  has  a  more  deleterious  effect  than  the  mere 
loss  of  either  of  these  rights,  however  valuable  they  may  be  to  their 
possessor.  It  weakens  the  confidence  of  man  in  the  honesty  of  his 
peers;  it  jeopards  that  feeling  of  security  which  is  essential  to  indi- 
vidual happiness;  it  impairs  the  strength  of  our  reliance  upon  that 
great  conservative  feature  of  a  representative  government;  and,  by 
forcing  upon  the  mind  the  remembrance  of  a  wrong  endured,  it  weak- 


DEDICATORY    ADDRESS    AT    BRIDGEWATEB.  209 

ens  our  desire  to  give  permanency  to  those  institutions  which  have 
partially  failed  to  answer  the  end  of  their  creation. 

But  still,  when  the  suffering  litigant,  under  the  influence  of  these 
feelings,  calls  for  increased  intelligence  and  virtue  in  the  jury-box,  let 
him  reflect,  that  hbwever  embarrassing,  and  arduous,  and  important 
are  the  duties  of  a  juror,  they  are  not  more  important,  and  require  no 
more  consideration,  than  those  political  duties  which  are  performed 
sometimes,  almost  without  even  a  thought  of  duty. 

There  are  other  modes  in  which  education  ministers  to  the  prosper- 
ity and  the  security  of  the  institutions  of  the  State,  to  some  of  which 
I  can  only  refer,  and  to  others  I  cannot  even  allude. 

The  more  than  three  hundred  flourishing  towns  and  cities  in  our 
Commonwealth  have  municipal  duties,  which  education  alone  can  en- 
able them  to  perform.  The  annual  election  of  their  municipal  officers, 
the  construction  and  repair  of  roads  and  bridges,  the  sanitary  regula- 
tions for  the  preservation  of  the  public  health,  the  adoption  of  pre- 
cautionary measures  against  the  commission  of  crime,  the  preventives 
against,  the  remedy  for,  and  the  support  of  honest  poverty,  the  regula- 
tions for  the  security  of  individual  property,  the  appropriations  for 
beneficent  municipal  objects,  the  applications  of  money  for  those  in- 
stitutions of  learning,  the  sustenance  of  which  the  law  has  wisely 
thrown  upon  them,  and  the  appointment  of  persons  to  watch  over  these 
nurseries  of  virtue  and  knowledge — all  these  objects  require  the  exer- 
cise of  those  higher  qualities,  both  of  the  mind  and  heart,  without 
which  we  are  neither  faithful  to  our  trusts,  just  to  ourselves,  nor 
mindful  of  our  posterity. 

Having  thus  far  considered  the  necessity  of  popular  education  in  a 
popular  government,  and,  to  some  extent,  the  manner  in  which  it  af- 
fects the  operation  of  this  vast,  wise,  and  complex  system,  let  me  ask 
of  you  whether  the  people  are  equal  to  the  responsibilities  which  have 
been  thrown  upon  them  by  the  framers  of  our  government.  I  do  not 
now  refer  to  that  great  State,  in  one  of  the  congressional  districts  of 
which  there  is  not  a  single  newspaper,  because  its  inhabitants  cannot 
read!  nor  to  those  constituent  parts  of  our  great  confederacy,  where 
candidates  for  office  advocate  their  own  claims  by  oral  addresses,  be- 
cause the  ear  is  the  only  organ  of  communication  between  them  and 
their  constituents!  nor  to  those  other  sections  of  our  Union,  where 
vice  and  ignorance  reign  triumphant  over  the  institutions  of  the  ballot, 
and  "fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread;"  but  here,  in  our  own 
venerated  State,  and  in  reference  to  our  own  beloved  Massachusetts, 
I  ask  of  you,  her  citizens,  if  the  people  have  arrived  at  that  consum- 
mation in  the  education  of  the  young,  when  efforts  for  improvement 
may  safely  cease.  There  is  not,  I  trust,  in  all  the  mass  of  people  with- 
in her  borders,  a  single  individual  who  will  give  an  affirmative  answer. 
They  know  that  the  offices  and  interests  of  our  towns  have  again  and 
again  depended  upon  a  single  vote!  They  know  that  more  than  once 
the  vote  of  a  single  individual  has  displaced  or  elevated  the  very  high- 
est of  our  officers!  They  know,  too,  that  often  the  character  of  the 
legislation  of  our  Commonwealth  has  depended  upon  the  votes  of 
those  who  never  read,  who  never  heard  read,  I  might  almost  say,  who 
never  heard  of,  the  people's  constitution! 

Thus  feeling,  thus  believing,  there  is  not  a  man  of  them  who  would 
consent  to  stay  the  march  of  improvement;  and,  if  not  for  the  sake  of 
education  itself,  if  not  for  the  sake  of  his  children  and  of  the  people, 
yet  for  the  sake  of  those  institutions  which  are  perhaps  our  too  con- 
stant boast,  he  will  look  with  eager  desire  for  that  period  when  the 
will  of  the  people  shall  be  directed  by  intelligence  and  virtue. 

N 


210  DEDICATORY  ADDRESS  AT  BRIDGEWATER. 

The  question  then  arises,  how  are  these  hopes  to  be  realized?  How 
is  this  people  to  be  educated?  How  is  every  man,  who  assumes  the 
duties  of  the  citizen,  to  be  fitted  for  the  performance  of  them? 

Will  you  point  me  to  the  family  relation,  and  affirm  that  those  who 
are  the  creators  of 'the  bo4y  are  also  to  be  the  educators  of  the  mind 
and  heart?  It  is  true  that  around  the  knees  of  the  mother  many  a 
youth  is  yet  to  receive  what  so  many  illustrious  citizens  have  already 
received — those  invaluable  precepts  which  alone  can  form  the  man. 
It  is  true  that  from  the  lips  of  many  a  father  the  child  is  to  be  in- 
spired with  those  holy  impulses  which  are  to  quicken  his  march  along 
the  path  of  virtue.  But  not  all  parents  are  sufficiently  capable,  not 
all  have  the  requisite  opportunity,  for  the  performance  of  this  great 
duty.  And  besides,  how  true  is  the  doctrine  which  has  received  the 
approbation  of  the  great  orator  of  the  age,  that  all  the  children  of  a 
republic  should  be  educated  in  the  people's  schools! 

Will  you  point  me  to  our  colleges  and  our  university?  Alas!  how 
few  of  the  children  of  our  State  receive  the  enlightenment  of  their  in- 
struction! Founded  by  the  wisdom  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  fostered  by 
their  children,  they  are  ever  to  be  cherished  by  succeeding  genera- 
tions. But,  though  they  may  glid  the  eminences  of  society,  they  can 
never  irradiate  the  sequestered  vales  of  life.  They  may  stand,  indeed, 
as  the  great  Bethesdas  of  healing,  but  there  is  a  great  multitude  of 
folk,  halt,  blind,  and  withered,  who  can  never  rejoice  in  the  healing 
of  their  waters. 

Will  you  refer  me  to  those  academic  institutions  which  shine  as 
lesser  lights  in  our  literary  horizon?  They  have  exercised,  and  are 
destined  still  to  exercise,  an  important  office  in  the  dissemination  of 
virtue  and  sound  learning;  but  they  can  never  rival  in  their  useful- 
ness the  seminaries  of  the  people.  And  besides,  they  are  not  free 
schools.  They  have  been,  and  must  still  be,  supported  by  the  price 
paid  for  labor;  and  however  useful  they  may  be  as  places  of  prepar- 
ation for  the  higher  seminaries  of  learning,  or  for  the  acquisition  of 
an  elegant  or  useful  education  by  a  large  class  of  our  citizens,  they 
can  never  form  a  link  in  that  vast  chain  of  intercommunication  which 
is  to  give  an  enkindling  impulse  to  every  citizen  in  the  land. 

There  are  in  the  State  more  than  200,000  children,  between  the  ages 
of  4  and  16  years.  Of  these,  about  500  are  supposed  to  be  students  of 
our  colleges  and  university,  and  about  12,000  to  be  members  of  the 
various  academical  institutions.  There  are,  then  about  190,000  chil- 
dren, who  if  educated  at  all,  are  to  be  educated  in  our  Common 
Schools. 

And  in  view  of  the  momentous  interests  which  rest  upon  these  in- 
stitutions of  the  State,  the  question  naturally  occurs  to  us,  Are  they 
adequate  to  the  fulfillment  of  the  designs  of  those  who  created,  and  of 
those  who  fostered,  and  who  still  foster  them?  No  one  expects  an  af- 
firmative answer.  Every  one  admits  that  there,  in  the  school-room, 
our  children  are  to  be  imbued  with  the  knowledge  and  with  the  love 
of  duty;  that  there  it  is  that  their  powers  are  to  be  trained,  their  views 
expanded,  and  their  hearts  improved;  but  no  one  believes  that  those 
by  whom  all  these  results  are  to  be  accomplished  are  competent  to  the 
task.  I  might  confidently  appeal  to  the  experience  of  those  who,  either 
long  ago  or  at  a  later  period,  have  left  the  Common  Schools,  as  to  the 
competency  of  their  teachers.  I  might  confidently  refer  to  the  very 
teachers  themselves.  I  might  refer  also  to  the  opinions  of  those  par- 
ents whose  children  are  now  fitting  themselves  for  the  field  of  use- 
fulness, or  preparing  for  that  harvest  of  evil  which  is  sure  to  follow 
the  years  of  neglected  childhood.  But  many  a  parent  has  never  seen 
the  teacher  of  his  child;  and  in  this  respect  they  rival  the  apathy  of 


DEDICATORY  ADDRESS  AT  BRIDGEWATER.  211 

those  ignorant  citizens  whose  votes  give  authority  to  the  voice  which 
speaks  from  the  ballot.  Recently,  a  little  girl  objected  to  join  the 
model  school  connected  with  one  of  our  State  Normal  institutions. 
"Why,"  said  her  father,  "you  will  receive  the  instruction  of  your  reg- 
ular teachers,  assisted  by  those  Normal  pupils,  who  will  instruct  you, 
under  the  inspection  and  direction  of  the  Normal  teacher  himself."  "I 
know  that,"  she  rejoined,  "but  I  don't  want  to  go  there  to  be  prac- 
ticed upon!"  How  long  have  ignorance  and  immorality  "practiced 
upon"  the  forming  minds  of  childhood!  and  while,  with  the  keenness 
of  avarice,  we  have  guarded  the  subordinate  interests  of  property,  to 
what  rash  hands  have  we  committeed  the  inappreciable  interests  of 
the  mind  and  heart! 

Assuming  the  necessity,  or  even  the  desirableness  of  elevating  the 
standard  of  Common-School  education,  and  adding  to  the  qualificaTTons 
of  those  teachers  in  whom  is  invested  a  charge  of  such  vast  responsi- 
bility, let  us  refer  to  the  modes  which  have  been  proposed  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  these  objects. 

It  has  been  thought  advisable  that  the  means  for  the  education  of 
teachers  should  be  provided  in  our  colleges  and  universities.  But  no 
one  supposes  that  teachers  can  be  educated  there  without  some  change, 
both  in  the  expenses  and  in  the  mode  of  teaching.  A  change  in  one 
particular  alone  would  be  productive  of  no  beneficial  result.  If,  for  in- 
stance, the  expenses  should  be  diminished,  and  if,  indeed,  those  per- 
sons who  propose  to  devote  themselves  to  the  business  of  teaching 
were  to  be  supported  wholly  at  public  expense,  there  would  still  re- 
main the  objection,  that  the  course  of  studies  pursued  at  these  insti- 
tutions, with  a  view  to  the  learned  professions,  is  not  the  one  best 
adapted  for  the  creation  of  a  sympathy  with  the  mind  of  a  child;  and 
on  the  other  hand,  if  the  required  changes  were  made  in  the  course 
of  instruction,  there  are  few  districts  which  would  feel  themselves 
able  to  employ  a  teacher  so  expensively  educated. 

Suppose  both  these  objections  to  be  anticipated  by  a  diminution  of 
the  expense,  and  the  creation  of  a  department  for  the  education  of 
teachers.  That  department  would  then  be  subordinate  to  the  other 
departments  of  the  college,  or  those  departments  to  the  former;  and, 
in  either  case,  disunion  of  feeling  and  collision  of  interests  would  im- 
pair the  usefulness  of  both.  But,  apart  from  this  effect,  the  creation 
of  such  a  department  for  the  purposes  indicated,  or,  to  obviate  still 
further  the  objection,  the  appropriation  to  them  of  all  the  departments 
of  the  college,  would  be,  in  one  case,  to  ingraft  a  Normal  School  upon 
the  institution  of  a  college,  and,  in  the  other,  to  convert  the  college 
itself  into  a  Normal  School.  The  same  general  views  apply  to  the 
use  of  our  incorporated"  academies,  for  the  purposes  indicated,  and 
their  correctness  has  been  fully  verified  by  actual  experiment.  In  the 
exercise  of  that  enlightened  liberality  which  for  a  long  time  has  char- 
acterized the  educational  policy  of  the  great  State  of  New  York,  this 
identical  plan  was  resorted  to  as  a  system  of  means  to  qualify  the 
teachers  of  their  Common  Schools.  An  academy  was  selected  in  each 
of  the  eight  senatorial  districts,  upon  which  was  ingrafted  a  teachers' 
department.  An  ample  appropriation  was  made  for  a  library  and  ap- 
paratus, and  a  further  sum  for  the  salary  of  an  additionl  instructor. 
The  system  won  to  itself  the  confidence  of  the  community.  The 
schools  were  well  attended;  the  pupils  were  eagerly  sought  for  as 
instructors;  and  such  was  their  success  as  to  induce  the  Legislature  to 
make  still  further  appropriations  for  the  extension  of  the  system. 

But  it  is  in  the  science  of  education  as  in  the  laws  of  nature  and 
the  principles  of  art.  One  discovery  or  one  improvement  only  pre- 
pares us  for  another,  until  we  look  with  a  feeling  of  derision  upon 
those  original  developments  which  once  commanded  our  unbounded 


212  DEDICATORY  ADDRESS  AT  BRIDGEWATER. 

admiration.  Such,  it  would  seem,  was  the  progress  of  opinion  as  to 
this  reform  upon  the  educational  system  of  New  York.  Great  even 
as  the  advantages  were  which  attended  this  provision,  it  was  found 
that  the  plan  was  only  a  vein  in  the  vast  mine  of  improvement;  and 
it  was  rightly  supposed  that,  if  the  establishment  of  a  department  sub- 
ordinate to  other  departments  was  attended  with  important  results  to 
the  greatest  interests  of  the  State,  surely  the  endowment  of  an  entire 
institution  for  the  same  objects,  having  no  rival  aims,  engrossed  by  no 
partial  pursuits,  weakened  by  no  incidental  or  collateral  purposes,  not, 
like  the  mistletoe,  insinuating  its  fibers  into  the  substance  of  another 
body,  and  depending  upon  it  for  a  precarious,  parasitical  existence,  but 
striking  its  supporting  roots  deeply  into  the  soil  over  which  it  was 
destined  to  throw  its  healthful  shade,  would  concentrate,  more  effec- 
tually, the  power  of  effort,  and  of  course  extend  more  widely  and  more 
deeply  the  advancement  of  learning. 

Accordingly,  the  system  of  combining  teachers'  seminaries  with 
academies  has  been  abandoned.  A  Normal  School  has  been  estab- 
lished, with  an  endowment  worthy  of  the  wealth  and  character  of  that 
State.  Already  the  effects  of  its  establishment  are  visable,  and  the 
people  look  forward  to  its  future  influence  with  a  firmer  belief  than 
the  faith  of  prophecy. 

We  come  to  the  consideration  of  the  wisdom  of  that  institution 
which  has  been  established  in  our  own  State — which,  in  imitation  of 
our  example,  has  been  adopted  by  New  York,  and  which  has  long 
eixsted  in  other  countries.  Let  us  advert  briefly  to  our  own  State 
history  of  Normal  Schools. 

The  law  of  1837,  creating  the  Board  of  Education,  made  it  its  duty 
to  submit  to  the  Legislature  such  observations  as  experience  and  re- 
flection might  suggest  upon  the  condition  and  efficiency  of  our  system 
of  popular  education,  and  the  most  practicable  means  of  improving 
and  extending  it. 

In  obedience  to  this  call,  the  Board,  in  its  First  Annual  Report,  pre- 
sented to  the  Legislature  its  views  of  the  propriety  of  the  establish- 
ment of  an  institution  for  the  education  of  teachers,  with  a  well- 
digested  summary  of  the  reasons  in  favor  of  such  an  institution;  and 
the  summary  concluded  with  the  expression  of  a  sanguine  hope  that 
the  resources  of  public  or  private  liberality,  applied  to  such  an  insti- 
tution, would  soon  remedy  the  existing  defects  in  the  character  of 
the  teacher. 

This  appeal  to  the  liberality  of  individuals  was  promptly  met  by 
one  who  places  a  proper  estimate  upon  the  usefulness  of  wealth. 
Prompted  by  the  importance  of  the  call,  Edmund  Dwight  (I  mention 
it  for  the  hundredth  time,  because,  upon  an  occasion  like  the  present, 
our  duties  would  be  incomplete  without  a  recognition  of  the  generosity 
of  the  act)  at  once  placed  he  sum  of  $10,000  conditionally  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Board,  for  the  purpose  indicated  in  their  report. 

The  same  Legislature,  to  which  the  report  was  made,  accepted  the 
donation,  fulfilled  the  condition  of  its  acceptance,  and  placed  at  their 
disposal  a  sum  of  equal  amount,  to  be  expended  in  qualifying  teachers 
of  our  Common  Schools.  In  carrying  out  the  expressed  intention  of 
the  Legislature,  the  Board  established,  at  successive  periods,  three 
institutions  for  the  instruction  of  teachers  in  "the  theory  and  prac- 
tice" of  school-teaching;  and  when  the  fund  which  had  been  placed 
at  their  disposal  was  expended,  the  Legislature  of  1842  appropriated 
the  further  sum  of  $6000  annually,  for  three  years,  to  secure  their  con- 
tinuance. 

Has  this  conduct,  both  of  our  Legislature  and  of  the  Board,  proceed- 
ed from  the  dictates  of  a  wise  policy? 


DEDICATORY    ADDRESS    AT    BRIDGEWATEB.  213 

To  strip  this  representation  of  its  illustrations,  the  propositions  may 
be  presented  thus: 

The  provision  for  the  education  of  the  people  of  the  State,  at  the 
expense  of  the  State,  is  essential  to  its  prosperity.  That  people  can 
only  be  educated  in  the  Common  Schools.  Those  schools  are  inade- 
quate to  the  proper  educational  training  of  that  people,  by  reason  of 
the  want  of  a  proper  degree  of  attainment  in  the  teachers.  These 
teachers  cannot  be  educated  at  our  colleges  and  our  academies.  No 
other  means  are  proposed  for  this  purpose  than  those  institutions  in 
which  they  are  to  be  taught  the  rules  and  principles  for  harmoniously 
unfolding  the  physical,  the  intellectual,  and  the  moral  nature  of  man. 
And  then  recurs  the  question — Is  the  establishment  of  such  institu- 
tions the  dictate  of  a  wise  policy? 

It  is  not  necessary  to  sustain  the  affirmative  by  argument.  It  needs 
none.  The  very  statement  is  argument.  Illustration  cannot  strengthen, 
reason  cannot  enforce  it.  What!  Here  in  Massachusetts,  in  the  Old 
Colony,  "that  mother  of  us  all,"  shall  we  sit  down  gravely  to  discuss  a 
proposition  of  which  even  barbarian  ignorance  has  perceived  the  truth? 
For  now,  even  now,  when  the  skeptic  cavils,  and  the  cautious  doubt, 
the  sultan  of  Turkey  has  spoken!  and,  in  his  zeal  for  the  introduction 
of  the  improvements  of  the  age,  he  has  followed  an  act  of  religious  tol- 
eration by  the  establishment  of  a  Normal  School. 

France,  too,  has  spoken;  and  her  voice  comes  to  us  in  tones  at  once 
of  encouragement  and  of  warning.  She  has  cultivated  the  intellect,  but 
she  has  corrupted  the  heart.  She  has  awakened  the  susceptibilities  of 
the  soul,  but  she  has  incited  them  to  crime;  and  while  she  has  shown 
us,  by  the  example  of  intellectual  training,  of  what  the  system  is  cap- 
able, she  has  admonished  us  to  neglect  not  the  improvement  of  those 
other  powers,  the  harmonious  development  of  which  is  alone  the  edu- 
cation of  the  man. 

Prussia  also  has  spoken;  and  when  we  contemplate  the  wonderful 
effects  which  the  operation  of  her  Normal  Schools,  for  a  generation, 
has  wrought  upon  her  people — the  more  strikingly  wonderful,  from  the 
disparity  which  it  has  created  between  those  who  have  enjoyed  their 
benefits,  and  that  other  and  more  teachable  sex,  which,  by  its  exclusion, 
has  been  cut  off  from  a  common  sympathy — we  are  led  to  prize  the 
more  highly  that  beneficent  provision  of  our  own  polity  which  declares 
that  all  the  people  shall  be  educated. 

But,  more  than  all,  and  above  all,  Massachusetts  has  spoken;  and 
her  voice  sounds  harmoniously  with  that  of  the  great  State  of  New 
York.  She  has  watched  the  rise  and  progress  of  these  institutions  with 
a  cautious  dread  of  injudicious  innovation,  and  yet  with  an  earnest 
zeal  for  well-considered  improvement.  She  has  seen  her  doubts  of  their 
usefulness  resolved  by  the  light  of  experience,  and  she  has  incorporated 
them  into  her  educational  policy.  The  three  State  Normal  Schools  are 
now  her  recognized  offspring,  and  until  perfection  shall  have  super- 
seded the  necessity  of  effort,  she  stands  pledged  to  their  support,  by 
her  past  history  and  her  present  fame.  The  institution  at  Newton  is 
Normal  in  its  teachers,  Normal  in  its  accommodations,  and  Normal  in 
the  results  which  it  has  produced  and  is  still  producing.  The  institu- 
tion at  Westfield  will  start  forth  on  the  3d  of  September  next,  with  the 
means  of  renewed  usefulness;  and  this  day  witnesses  the  commence- 
ment of  a  new  effort,  which  is  to  extend  a  benignant  influence  through 
future  ages. 

And  now,  who  will  pronounce  as  unimportant  and  trifling  the  occas- 
ion of  our  assembling?  Let  us  draw  within  the  circle  of  our  contempla- 
tion the  prospective  advantages  which  this  institution  promises,  and 
see  if  our  imagination  clothes  with  too  bright  a  hue  the  visions  of  the 
future. 


214  DEDICATORY  ADDRESS  AT  BRIDGEWATER. 

We  behold  its  teachers  working  with  the  plastic  hand  of  an  artist  up- 
on the  immortal  mind.  We  behold  them,  not  like  the  painter,  who 
makes  the  canvas  glow  with  those  delineations  of  genius  which  a  few 
years  will  obliterate;  not  like  the  sculptor,  who  fashions  and  works 
out  the  features  of  greatness,  the  enduring  marble  of  which  the  hand 
of  time  will  soon  destroy;  but  we  contemplate  them  forming,  and  fash- 
ioning, and  moulding  beings  who  are  to  exist  forever.  Here  they  are  to 
discipline  the  intellect,  to  train  the  feelings,  to  curb  the  passions,  to 
inspire  true  motives  of  action,  to  inculcate  pure  principles  of  morality, 
and  to  instill  that  deep  feeling  of  religious  obligation  which  superadds 
to  the  precepts  of  philosophy  the  impulse  of  an  enlightened  conscience. 
Here  are  to  be  taught  those  doctrines  of  relation,  a  knowledge  of  which 
is  essential  to  the  security  of  political  rights  and  the  performance  of 
social  duties.  Here  are  to  be  drawn  out,  and  developed,  and  expanded, 
the  illimitable  faculties  of  a  being  formed  in  God's  own  image.  Here, 
in  a  word,  man  is  to  be  EDUCATED. 

If  this  was  to  be  the  ultimate  object  of  the  establishment  of  this  in- 
stitution, and  the  pupils,  who  shall  thus  be  educated,  were  to  go  forth 
only  as  future  fathers  and  mothers,  and  citizens,  what  might  we  not 
expect  from  their  enlightened  example! 

But  it  has  a  more  enlarged  and  extended  purpose.  The  pupils  who 
shall  carry  from  these  walls  those  principles  which  enlightened  wis- 
dom can  alone  impart,  are  to  enter,  year  by  year,  those  ten  thousand 
seminaries,  in  which,  day  by  day,  are  formed  the  hearts  of  the  arbiters 
of  this  nation's  destiny.  They  are  to  transfuse  those  principles  into 
other  minds.  They  are  to  multiply  and  extend  those  streams  of  improve- 
ment, which,  proceeding  from  this  fountain,  are  destined  to  increase 
as  they  roll,  and  to  fertilize  as  they  flow. 

Let,  then,  those  two  great  States  which  have  committed  themselves 
to  the  fulfillment  of  this  great  effort,  go  on,  hand  in  hand,  with  a 
unity  never  to  be  dissevered.  Let  their  example  be  for  the  imitation  of 
other  States  and  the  praise  of  all  posterity.  Then  shall  the  hardest  dif- 
ficulties which  beset  the  path  of  free  governments  smooth  themselves 
out  before  us,  and  then  shall  the  blessings  of  free  institutions  be  be- 
stowed upon  the  people,  like  the  all-dispensing  bounty  of  the  rain  and 
the  sunshine. 


ADDRESS 


DEDICATION    OF    THE    WESTFIELD    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL- 
HOUSE, 

BY  EEV.   HEMAN  HUMPHREY,   D.  D., 

September  3,  1846. 


Friends  and  Patrons  of  Popular  Education: 

UNDER  the  smiles  of  a  beneficent  Providence,  this  beautiful  edifice 
has  been  reared  and  finished;  and  we  are  assembled  to  exchange  our 
mutual  congratulations  upon  the  occasion.  It  is  now  ready  for  the  re- 
ception of  the  Normal  School,  and  it  is  fitting  that,  before  its  ample 
accommodations  are  thrown  open,  it  should  be  dedicated  to  the  cause 
for  which  its  munificent  benefactors  designed  it. 

Next  to  the  church,  the  school-house  rose  in  the  wildernesses  of  Ply- 
mouth and  Massachusetts  Bay,  under  the  saws  and  hammers  of  those 
sturdy  Christian  adventurers,  "of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy." 
Their  deep  and  far-reaching  policy  was  to  educate  their  children  for 
both  worlds;  to  prepare  them,  by  early  intellectual  and  moral  training, 
to  glorify  God  here,  and  to  enjoy  him  forever  in  his  kingdom.  By  pro- 
viding every  facility  in  our  power  for  the  extension  and  thoroughness 
of  popular  education,  we  are  only  following  out  the  wise  forecast  of  the 
men  who  scarcely  waited  for  the  thawing  off  of  the  icy  mail  with 
which  they  were  clad  when  they  landed,  before  they  began  to  execute 
their  purpose,  that  every  child,  however  poor,  in  their  infant  Common- 
wealth, should  receive  at  least  what  we  now  denominate  a  Common- 
school  education. 

Their  school-houses,  indeed,  were  cheap  and  humble  structures, 
compared  with  the  noble  Grecian  edifice  which  is  henceforth  to  adorn 
this  prosperous  village,  and  open  its  doors  indiscriminately  to  all  the 
youth,  far  and  near,  who  may  wish  to  avail  themselves  of  its  advant- 
ages. They  had  no  schools  of  a  higher  order  for  the  training  of  their 
teachers;  but  they  did  what  they  could.  It  would  be  a  shame  and  a  sin, 
if,  with  all  our  wealth,  and  all  the  experience  and  advance  of  two  such 
centuries  as  the  past,  we  should  content  ourselves  with  the  standard  of 
popular  education  as  they  left  it,  or  as  our  fathers  of  the  last  genera- 
tion left  it.  It  is  our  duty  to  leave  the  first  principles,  and  go  on  unto 
perfection. 

The  instructions  of  those  who  taught  us  in  the  primary  schools, 
when  we  sat  with  our  feet  dangling  upon  the  four-legged  slabs,  just 
from  the  saw-mill,  are  not  to  be  undervalued.  Considering  the  dis- 
advantages under  which  they  labored,  it  is  remarkable  that  they  ac- 
complished so  much  as  many  of  them  did.  But  the  best  of  our  primary 
teachers  have  felt  and  do  feel  the  want  of  a  suitable  education  for 
the  discharge  of  their  responsible  duties;  and  there  has  for  some  time 
been  a  growing  conviction  in  the  public  mind,  that  teaching  ought  to 
be  elevated  to  the  rank  of  a  liberal  profession,  and  that  to  meet  the 
demand  we  must  have  a  new  class  of  professional  seminaries.  It  is 
to  supply  this  desideratum  in  our  own  State,  that  the  Normal  Schools 
of  West  Newton,  Bridgewater,  and  Westfield  have  been  established  by 
individual  and  public  munificence.  It  is  confessedly  an  experiment 
of  very  great  importance,  and  every  facility  ought  to  be  afforded  for 


216  DR.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFIELD. 

testing  its  claims  to  public  favor.  In  presenting  my  own  thoughts  on 
the  subject  to  this  enlightened  audience,  I  shall  touch 

Upon  the  urgent  demand  for  better  qualified  teachers  in  our  Com- 
mon Schools; 

Upon  the  reasons  why  those  who  are  to  be  teachers  should  be  edu- 
cated with  special  reference  to  the  profession; 

Upon  what  is  embraced  in  a  good  professional  teacher's  education; 
and 

Upon  the  adaptation  of  the  Normal  system  of  instruction  to  give 
such  education. 

Each  of  these  topics  affords  ample  scope  for  an  opening  discourse; 
and  upon  more  than  one  of  them  I  would  gladly  dwell  much  longer 
than  my  limits  will  allow. 

To  glance  at  the  first.  The  proposition  is  that  there  is  an  urgent 
demand  for  better  qualified  teachers  in  our  Common  Schools.  It  is 
an  axiom  in  every  trade  and  profession,  that  a  man  must  first  learn 
the  trade,  must  study  his  profession — in  other  words,  must  be  educated 
for  it  before  he  commences.  A  blacksmith  is  no  blacksmith  at  all 
until  he  has  learned  how  to  smite  the  anvil  and  shoe  horses.  Before 
a  man  sets  up  for  a  tailor,  he  must  serve  a  regular  apprenticeship.  A 
cabinet-maker  must  learn  the  use  of  tools  before  he  can  make  sofas 
and  sideboards.  The  jeweler  must  know  how  to  cut,  and  polish,  and 
set  precious  stones.  The  physician,  the  lawyer,  the  clergyman,  the 
college  faculty,  must  all  be  educated  for  their  respective  professions, 
to  entitle  them  to  public  confidence.  This  is  the  general  rule.  Is  the 
schoolmaster  an  exception?  Can  he  teach  others  what  he  has  never 
learned  himself?  Is  it  safe  to  confide  the  education  of  our  children 
to  a  mere  tyro;  to  one  who  has  never  been  trained  himself  in  elemen- 
tary studies?  He  may  be  very  honest  and  very  faithful;  but  can  he 
teach  reading,  or  grammar,  or  arithmetic,  or  surveying,  if  he  is  a  poor 
reader  of  the  plainest  prose,  and  gets  bewildered  every  day  among  the 
tenses,  and  is  sure  to  lose  the  points  of  compass,  and  find  himself  a 
staring  left-hand  cipher  at  his  wits'  end,  whenever  he  ventures  into 
the  regions  of  fractions? 

I  have  no  disposition  to  depreciate  the  talents  or  the  labors  of  our 
primary  teachers.  In  mental  power  and  moral  worth,  they  will  not 
suffer  in  comparison  with  any  equally  numerous  class  of  men  and 
women  in  the  community.  The  material  is  excellent.  It  is  of  the 
genuine  Saxon  growth.  The  world  cannot  furnish  a  better.  As  a  class, 
our  teachers  are  doing  what  they  can  to  raise  the  standard  of  popular 
education.  They  work  hard.  They  do  as  well  as  they  know  how.  In 
these  respects  they  are  entitled  to  our  confidence  and  our  thanks.  As 
a  class,  I  honor,  and  so  far  as  I  am  able,  will  defend  them.  They  have 
laid  the  Commonwealth  under  lasting  obligations  of  gratitude  and  en- 
couragement; and  if  she  had  done  more  for  them,  they  would  have 
done  more  for  her. 

But  it  cannot  be  concealed  or  disputed,  that  our  schools  are  suffer- 
ing for  want  of  better  qualified  instructors.  Very  few  of  our  teachers 
have  been  systematically  educated  for  the  profession.  By  far  the 
greater  number  have  never  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  thorough  pro- 
fessional training  at  all.  They  have  been  left  to  educate  themselves 
as  best  they  could,  and  that  mainly  by  the  process  of  experience  in 
teaching.  It  seems  not,  till  lately,  to  have  entered  the  minds  of  more 
than  a  few,  even  of  the  enlightened  friends  of  our  Common  Schools, 
that  teachers'  seminaries  are  at  all  necessary.  It  had  been  taken  for 
granted  that  the  demand,  as  in  political  economy,  would  create  a 
supply;  and  that  any  person  who  has  received  a  good  common  educa- 
tion himself  must  be  competent  to  teach  little  children  in  a  district 


DR.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFIELD.  217 

school.  The  consequence  is,  that  while  we  have  educated  shoemakers, 
and  carpenters,  and  goldsmiths  enough — that  is,  men  brought  up  to 
their  business — we  have  but  few  educated  schoolmasters.  As  juster 
views  are  now  taken  of  the  subject,  and  are  extending  among  the  peo- 
ple, the  complaint  is  growing  louder  and  louder,  that  nothing  like  a 
supply  of  competent  teachers  can  be  had.  After  the  most  diligent  in- 
quiry, they  cannot  be  found.  Respectable  districts,  by  scores  and  hun- 
dreds, are  obliged  to  take  up  with  such  as  have  no  pretension  to  the 
requisite  qualifications. 

On  this  subject  the  annual  reports  of  school  committees,  from  all 
parts  of  the  Commonwealth,  are  alarmingly  instructive.  I  might  quote 
their  complaints  till  sunset,  that  it  is  impossible  to  have  good  schools 
for  want  of  good  teachers.  Many  who  offer  themselves  for  examin- 
ation are  deficient  in  every  thing;  in  spelling,  in  reading,  in  penman- 
ship, in  geography,  in  grammar,  in  common  arithmetic.  There  is  not 
a  single  branch  which  they  are  capable  of  teaching  promptly  and  cor- 
rectly. Many  others  are  but  little  better  qualified;  and  the  majority 
would  be  dismissed  and  advised  to  go  back  to  their  domestic  and  rural 
employments,  if  competent  instructors  could  be  had.  The  demand  for 
such  teachers  is  great,  and  it  is  increasing. 

We  will  next  inquire  into  the  reasons  why  those  who  are  to  be 
teachers  should  be  educated  with  special  reference  to  the  profession. 
Whatever  a  man  undertakes,  the  importance  of  his  knowing  how  to  do 
it,  rises  in  proportion  to  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  involved  and 
the  difficulties  to  be  overcome.  In  some  cases,  the  first  bungler  that 
comes  along  may  be  employed,  where  no  better  man  offers,  because, 
if  he  fails,  it  is  very  little  matter;  but,  in  other  cases,  it  would  be  mad- 
ness to  employ  any  but  an  experienced  workman.  You  may  let  any 
body  hoe  your  potato-patch  who  is  willing  to  undertake  it;  but  the  ship 
in  which  you  intend  to  circumnavigate  the  globe  must  be  built  by  first- 
rate  workmen. 

When  you  bring  a  teacher  into  one  of  your  primary  schools  of  forty 
of  fifty  children,  and  put  him  in  communication  with  their  opening 
and  ductile  minds,  what  is  the  task  which  he  has  before  him? 

In  the  first  place,  what  is  the  material  upon  which  he  is  to  exercise 
his  skill;  which  he  is  to  mold,  and  fashion,  and  polish?  If  it  were  a 
coarse  and  vulgar  substance,  it  might  go  into  rough  hands,  and  take 
its  chance.  But  it  is  something  infinitely  more  precious  and  ductile 
than  the  finest  gold.  It  is  the  intelligent,  the  immortal  mind,  or,  rath- 
er, it  is  half  a  hundred  such  minds,  sparkling  around  the  teacher,  and 
all  opening  to  his  plastic  touch.  It  is — what  shall  I  say?  a  substance  of 
the  finest  mold,  that  can  be  fashioned  and  chiseled  like  the  Grecian 
Apollo?  No!  it  is  a  spiritual  essence,  fresh  from  the  skies.  It  is  a 
mysterious  emanation  from  the  infinite  Source  of  being  and  intelli- 
gence, an  immortal  mind — ever  present,  though  always  invisible,  in  the 
school-room — seeing,  hearing,  thinking,  expanding;  always  ready  to 
take  the  slightest  impression  for  good  or  for  evil,  and  certain  to  be  in- 
fluenced every  hour,  one  way  or  the  other,  by  the  teacher.  What  a 
responsibility!  What  a  task! 

Consider  the  kind  of  substance  upon  which  the  schoolmaster  is 
either  skillfully  or  unskillfully  tracing  the  first  lines  that  it  receives, 
after  the  invisible  cipher  of  the  nursery,  and  what  the  sketching  upon 
such  a  tablet  ought  to  be.  He  might  go  down  to  the  sea-shore,  when 
the  tide  is  out,  and  write  as  rudely  as  he  pleased,  and  the  first  refluent 
wave  would  wash  the  surface  just  as  smooth  as  the  last  ebb  left  it. 
He  might  draw  his  awkward  diagrams  upon  the  drifted  snow-bank,  and 
the  first  breath  of  air  would  whisk  them  away.  He  might  write  out 
his  lessons  like  a  wise  man  or  a  fool,  and  it  would  make  no  difference; 
the  next  hour  would  obliterate  them  all. 


218  DR.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFIELD. 

But  it  is  not  so  in  the  school-house.  Every  tablet  there  is  more  dur- 
able than  brass.  Every  line  that  the  teacher  traces  upon  the  mind 
of  the  scholar  is,  as  it  were,  "graven  with  the  point  of  a  diamond." 
Rust  will  eat  up  the  hardest  metals;  time  and  the  elements  will  wear 
out  the  deepest  chiseling  in  marble;  and  if  the  painter  could  dip  his 
pencil  in  the  rainbow,  the  colors  would  at  length  fade  from  the  can- 
vas. But  the  spirits,  the  impressible  minds  of  that  group  of  children, 
in  however  humble  circumstances,  are  immortal.  When  they  have  out- 
lived the  stars,  they  will  only  have  entered  upon  the  infancy  of  their 
being.  And  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  no  impression  made  upon 
them  will  ever  be  obliterated.  Forgotten,  during  shorter  or  longer  per- 
iods of  time,  many  things  may  be;  but  the  cipher,  without  the  erasure 
of  a  single  line,  in  all  probability  remains,  to  be  brought  out  by  the 
tests  of  a  dying  hour,  or  the  trial  of  the  last  day.  The  schoolmaster 
literally  speaks,  writes,  teaches,  paints,  for  eternity.  They  are  im- 
mortal beings,  whose  minds  are  as  clay  to  the  seal  under  his  hand. 
And  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things? 

Just  look  at  the  case  in  another  light.  They  are  the  children  of  a 
hundred  and  thirty  or  forty  thousand  families,  who,  as  they  successive- 
ly become  old  enough,  are  receiving  their  education  in  the  Common 
Schools  of  Massachusetts.  At  present,  they  are  under  tutors  and  gov- 
ernors, and  have  no  direct  influence,  one  way  or  the  other,  upon  the 
great  interests  of  the  Commonwealth.  But  who  are  they?  Go  with 
me  from  school  to  school,  from  town  to  town,  and  from  county  to 
county,  and  let  us  inquire.  On  that  little  form  directly  in  front  of  the 
teacher,  sits  a  distinguished  and  skillful  physician.  Just  behind  him 
you  see  one  of  the  prominent  members  of  the  General  Court.  On  an- 
other bench,  behind  the  door,  sits  a  professor  of  mathematics,  biting 
his  pencil  and  puzzling  over  the  rule  of  three.  On  the  other  side  of 
the  room,  that  chubby  boy  is  none  other  than  the  Secretary  of  State. 
In  the  next  school  we  find  here  a  governor  of  the  Commonwealth, 
reading  in  tables  of  two  syllables;  there,  from  one  of  the  poorest  fam- 
ilies of  the  district,  an  importing  merchant,  worth  half  a  million  of 
dollars;  and  close  by  his  side  one  of  the  shrewdest  lawyers  in  the 
county.  Going  on  to  the  next  school-house,  in  the  remotest  corner  of 
the  town,  we  find  a  selectman,  a  sheriff,  a  professor  of  languages,  and, 
besides  a  number  of  enterprising  and  prosperous  farmers  and  mechan- 
ics, perhaps  a  representative  to  Congress.  But  we  must  not  be  partial 
in  our  visits.  Let  us  take  the  cars  and  go  into  another  section  of  the 
State,  and  see  what  we  can  find  there.  The  very  first  boy  we  over- 
take trudging  along  toward  the  village  school-house,  with  his  dinner- 
basket  in  one  hand,  and  his  skates  in  the  other,  is  the  chief-justice  of 
the  Commonwealth.  We  enter,  and  who  should  we  find  there  but  the 
president  of  a  great  railroad  company;  also  one  of  the  richest  bank- 
ers in  State-street;  two  or  three  clergymen,  of  as  many  different  de- 
nominations; a  chemist,  a  town  clerk,  a  judge  of  probate,  and  a  great 
civil  engineer.  In  the  next  school  we  see  a  United  States  senator  at 
the  blackboard;  a  physician  just  getting  out  of  his  a-b-abs;  a  brigadier- 
general  trying  to  make  straight  marks  upon  his  pasteboard  slate;  an 
honorable  counselor  digging  out  his  first  sentence  in  parsing,  and  half 
a  dozen  school-teachers,  some  in  "baker,"  some  in  "a-cat-may-look-on-a- 
king,"  and  some  in  "a-i-1,  to  be  troubled." 

But  we  are  not  through  yet.  In  the  very  next  school  we  visit — it 
may  be  in  Boston,  it  may  be  in  the  obscurest  mountain  town  of  the 
interior,  it  may  be  on  the  sea-board,  or  under  the  shadow  of  Wachusett 
— we  find  an  associate  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  or  an  attorney-gen- 
eral, or  a  foreign  embassador,  or,  speaking  in  the  past  tense,  a  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States. 


DR.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFIELD.  219 

Thus,  were  we  to  visit  all  the  primary  schools  of  the  Commonwealth, 
we  should  be  sure  to  find  nearly  all  the  ministers,  lawyers,  physicians, 
judges,  legislators,  professors,  and  other  teachers,  merchants,  manu- 
facturers, and,  in  short,  all  the  most  intelligent,  active,  and  useful 
men  of  the  next  generation  in  these  schools.  We  cannot  now  point 
them  out  by  name.  We  cannot  tell  who  of  them  will  be  governors, 
and  judges,  and  merchant  princes;  but  in  winter,  or  summer,  or  both, 
they  are  all  there.  They  are  receiving  the  rudiments  of  their  edu- 
cation under  such  teachers  as  we  provide  for  them,  and  in  the  period 
of  life  when  the  most  lasting  impressions  are  made.  More,  I  will  ven- 
ture to  say,  is  done  during  the  first  ten  or  twelve  years,  in  the  humble 
district  school-house,  to  give  tone  and  shape  to  the  popular  mind, 
than  in  all  the  years  that  follow.  Bad  habits  of  reading,  or  slovenly 
habits  of  writing,  or  loose  habits  of  reciting  and  thinking,  which  are 
contracted  there,  will  cling  to  most  men  as  long  as  they  live;  while,  on 
the  contrary,  the  permanent  advantages  of  a  good  beginning  under 
competent  instructors,  are  witnessed  and  acknowledged  by  all.  It  has 
been  so  in  Massachusetts  from  the  beginning. 

Her  great  men  have  commenced  their  education  in  the  common 
school-house.  And  "the  thing  that  hath  been  is  that  which  shall  be,  and 
that  which  is  done  is  that  which  shall  be  done,  as  one  generation  pass- 
eth  and  another  cometh."  In  less  than  half  a  century,  all  the  profes- 
sions in  our  noble  State  will  be  filled,  all  the  offices  will  be  held,  all  the 
business  will  be  done,  and  nearly  all  the  property  will  be  owned,  by 
the  boys  who  first  graduate  at  our  Common  Schools,  and  whose  par- 
ents are  too  poor  to  give  them  a  better  education.  It  will  be  so  as  long 
as  these  schools  are  sustained  and  open  to  all:  and  they  will  do  more  or 
less  to  elevate  the  moral  and  intellectual  character  of  the  people,  as 
the  teachers  are  thoroughly  or  superficially  educated.  Every  faithful 
and  well-qualified  instructor  in  the  humblest  district  school  is  a  public 
benefactor.  But  where  shall  the  school  committees  look  for  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  such,  till  Teachers'  Seminaries  furnish  them? 

It  is  not  so  well  considered  as  it  should  be,  that  education  is  both  a 
science  and  an  art.  Though  not  one  of  the  exact  sciences,  it  rests  on 
deep  and  complicated  elementary  principles,  and  calls  for  a  more  care- 
ful study  of  the  early  susceptibilities  and  operations  of  the  human 
mind  than  any  other  science.  Every  child  has,  if  I  may  so  speak,  three 
natures — a  physical,  a  mental,  and  a  moral,  between  which  there  are 
mysterious  sympathies  and  connections,  that  reciprocally  govern  and 
are  governed.  He  has  organs  of  sense,  which  are  the  inlets  of  knowl- 
edge, and  without  which  he  could  not  learn  any  thing,  however  skillful 
the  teacher.  He  would  still  have  a  mind,  but  it  would  be  a  prisoner, 
groping  hopelessly  in  a  dungeon.  He  has  perception,  reason,  memory, 
and  imagination.  He  can  learn  and  apply  rules,  understand  proposi- 
tions, and  in  simple  examples  see  the  connection  between  premises  and 
conclusions.  He  can  be  stimulated  and  swayed  by  motives,  and  is  pe- 
culiarly alive  to  their  influence.  He  is  susceptible  of  a  great  variety  of 
opposite  emotions — of  hope  and  fear;  of  joy  and  sorrow;  of  love  and 
hatred.  But  I  need  not  enumerate.  Every  child  in  the  primary  school 
has  a  moral  as  well  as  a  rational  nature — has  a  conscience.  He  can  dis- 
cern between  good  and  evil.  He  knows  the  difference  between  right  and 
wrong;  between  truth  and  falsehood.  In  short,  he  has  within  him  all 
the  elements  of  high  responsibility;  all  the  noble  faculties  of  an  ac- 
countable and  immortal  being.  But  these  faculties  are  yet  to  be  un- 
folded, to  be  cultivated,  to  be  educated.  The  understanding  needs  it. 
The  memory  needs  it.  The  imagination  needs  it.  The  conscience  and 
the  heart  need  it. 

This  is  what  I  mean  by  education  as  an  art;  and  the  art  here,  as  in 
most  other  cases,  is  founded  upon  the  science.  It  is  seizing  upon  the 


220  DB.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFUXD. 

elements  and  reducing  them  to  order — it  is  arranging  and  applying 
fundamental  principles.  It  is  molding  the  mind,  and  stimulating  it  to 
high  and  noble  aims.  It  is  drawing  out  its  powers,  teaching  it  its  own 
strength,  and  making  it  work,  as  the  incumbent  atmosphere  does  the 
steam-engine.  In  fine,  it  is  the  art  of  educating  the  whole  man,  of 
symmetrically  cultivating  all  the  powers  and  faculties  of  the  pupil's 
mind,  and  training  him  up  to  the  love  and  practice  of  all  the  virtues. 
In  this  view,  education  holds  a  high,  if  not  the  highest  rank  among 
the  liberal  and  useful  arts.  But  it  is  no  more  intuitive  than  any  of 
them.  The  art  of  educating,  as  well  as  every  other  art,  must  be  studied, 
must  be  learned.  Though  it  be  not  essential  that  every  schoolmaster 
should  be  a  profound  intellectual  and  moral  philosopher,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  he  should  understand  what  the  motive  power  in  the  child's 
mind  is,  and  how  to  reach  it. 

It  would  be  mere  commonplace  to  add  that  no  one  can  teach  what  he 
does  not  understand  himself.  He  may  try;  and  when  he  gets  fairly 
swamped,  he  may  look  as  wise  as  an  owl  upon  a  hollow  tree.  He  may 
blunder  along  over  the  recitation  like  a  bewildered  militia-man  in  an 
enemy's  country,  and  bless  himself  that  he  has  got  through  some  how 
or  other;  but  this  is  not  teaching.  It  is  mumbling  and  hesitating;  and, 
in  the  last  resort,  knocking  a  difficulty  on  the  head  as  an  impudent 
intruder,  or  shying  round  it  as  if  it  lay  coiled  and  hissing  in  his  path, 
like  a  serpent.  It  seems  to  be  strangely  overlooked,  in  many  quarters, 
even  to  this  day,  that  a  competent  education  for  teaching  embraces  a 
great  deal  more  than  a  general  and  superficial  knowledge  of  spelling, 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  grammar,  and  geography.  But  really  it  is 
time  for  every  body  to  understand  the  difference  between  smattering  in 
school,  six  hours  a  day,  and  teaching  thoroughly,  accurately,  in  all  the 
studies.  Every  branch  should,  if  possible,  be  as  familiar  to  the  instruc- 
tor as  the  first  lessons  in  the  child's  reader.  If  it  is  not  at  his  tongue's 
end,  he  labors  under  very  great  embarrassment.  He  has  no  time  to 
study  out  the  lessons  as  he  goes  along.  He  needs  to  be  as  sure  and 
prompt  as  a  percussion-lock.  He  must  be,  in  order  to  do  full  justice  to 
his  school. 

Just  consider  for  a  moment  what  is  required  of  him,  every  day  and 
every  hour.  In  the  first  place,  the  school  is  to  be  brought  under  strict 
subordination  before  he  can  begin  to  teach.  Half  a  hundred  children, 
often  more,  of  all  ages,  are  to  be  governed,  or  they  will  soon  govern 
him,  as  they  do  their  parents  at  home.  Even  after  his  authority  is 
established,  it  requires  the  eyes  of  an  Argus  to  keep  them  in  subjec- 
tion and  close  to  their  studies.  This,  of  itself,  would  be  a  laborious  task. 
Let  any  one  who  doubts  and  theorizes,  try  it,  and  he  will  see.  But  it  is 
a  trifle  compared  with  what  the  sole  teacher  of  a  large  district  school 
has  to  do.  Look  in  upon  him,  and  judge  for  yourselves.  He  must  hear 
from  five  to  ten  classes  in  as  many  different  branches  before  the  clock 
strikes  twelve,  and  must  do  it  in  the  midst  of  constant  interruptions. 
Mr.  A.,  may  I  go  to  the  fire — may  I  go  out — may  I  get  some  snow  and 
put  into  my  ink — may  I  go  home  and  get  my  slate?  Mr.  A.,  will  you 
mend  my  pen — will  you  show  me  how  to  do  this  sum?  I  have  worked 
upon  it  two  hours,  and  it  won't  come  right  nohow.  I  wonder  what  such 
hard  sums  were  made  for.  Mr.  A.,  Sam  pinched  me.  Mr.  A.,  Ben  keeps 
pulling  my  hair.  Mr.  A.,  Mr.  A.,  Bill  studies  so  loud  that  I  can't  get 
my  lesson.  Mr.  A.,  what  time  is  it?  Mother  says  I  must  go  home  at 
three  o'clock  and  do  the  chores. 

These  are  a  few  specimens  of  the  thousand  and  one  questions  and 
other  interruptions  by  which  the  teacher  of  a  Common  School  is  har- 
assed from  morning  to  night,  till  his  patience  is  worn  threadbare. 
What,  then,  in  the  mean  time,  it  is  become  of  his  recitations?  The 
classes  must  go  on  in  spite  of  all  this,  if  they  are  to  read,  and  spell, 


DB.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFIELD.  221 

and  recite  at  all.  The  sun  will  not  stop  for  the  pens  to  be  mended,  nor 
for  the  tongues  to  cease.  Woe  to  the  master  who  cannot  attend  to  more 
than  one  or  two  things  at  once!  If,  when  a  class  gets  up  to  read,  he  is 
obliged  to  take  the  book  and  follow  them,  line  by  line,  to  see  whether 
they  call  the  words  right  and  mind  the  stops,  as  I  have  sometimes  my- 
self witnessed,  who  will  keep  the  school  in  order,  and  all  the  rest  of 
the  machinery  in  gear  and  in  motion?  Poor  man!  how  I  pity  him  from 
the  bottom  of  my  heart!  and  how  I  pity  the  school  too!  So,  when  he 
calls  up  a  class  in  grammar,  or  in  arithmetic,  if  be  is  obliged  to  direct 
his  whole  attention  to  the  lesson;  if  the  slightest  transposition  or 
anomaly  in  the  construction  of  a  sentence  sends  him  to  his  accidence 
to  puzzle  it  out,  while  the  whole  class  is  waiting,  dubious  of  his  suc- 
cess; or  if  the  nine  digits,  with  their  characteristic  obstinancy,  bring 
him  to  a  dead  stand  in  some  of  the  common  rules,  and  oblige  him  to 
adjourn  the  recitation  over  night,  what,  in  the  mean  time,  must  be- 
come of  all  the  other  exercises  and  interests  of  the  school?  If  any 
teacher  in  the  world  needs  to  have  every  thing  by  heart,  it  is  the  teach- 
er of  a  common  school.  He  has  so  many  classes,  so  many  branches,  so 
many  wheels  to  keep  in  motion,  so  many  things  to  divide  his  attention, 
that,  if  he  is  not  thoroughly  educated  himself,  it  is  impossible  for  him 
to  do  justice  to  those  who  are  committed  to  his  care.  It  may  be  no 
fault  of  his  that  he  is  deficient  in  some,  or  even  in  all  the  branches  of 
popular  education.  He  may  never  have  been  thoroughly  educated  him- 
self. Considering  his  limited  advantages,  he  may  do  better  than  could 
have  been  expected;  but  such  a  man  will  feel  his  deficiencies,  and  the 
school  will  suffer  in  spite  of  his  best  endeavors. 

What,  then,  is  to  be  done?  Where  and  how  are  our  schoolmasters  and 
schoolmistresses  to  be  better  educated?  There  is  no  want  of  the  ma- 
terial. We  have  young  men  and  young  women  enough  in  Massachusetts 
who  would  prove  themselves  worthy  of  the  highest  public  confidence 
as  teachers  if  they  could  but  be  regularly  trained  to  the  profession. 
But  while  all  admit  that  there  is  a  great  demand  for  more  thoroughly 
qualified  teachers  in  the  public  schools,  some  suppose  that  it  can  be 
fully  met  by  the  colleges  and  academies  of  the  State.  I  have  no  dispo- 
sition to  undervalue  these  seminaries.  They  are  the  glory  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. No  one  will  dispute  the  ability  of  our  colleges  to  give  just 
such  an  education  as  every  schoolmaster  wants.  They  are  furnished 
with  the  ablest  instructors,  and  teach  many  things  which  are  far  in  ad- 
vance of  what  the  public  schools  require.  But  the  colleges  have  no 
teachers'  department,  and  do  not  pretend  to  qualify  their  graduates 
and  undergraduates  for  common  schoolmasters.  Some  of  them  teach 
the  winter  schools,  to  be  sure;  and  it  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted, 
that  because  they  have  studied  Greek  and  Latin,  and  Conic  Sections, 
they  must  know  all  about  the  branches  of  Common-School  education. 
This  is  one  of  the  best  examples  of  non  sequitur  that  I  can  think  of. 
Because  a  young  man  can  read  Demosthenes  and  calculate  eclipses,  he 
must  be  eminently  qualified  to  teach  a  primary  school!  It  is  no  dis- 
paragement to  some  of  the  best  classical  scholars  to  say,  that  they  are 
not  fit  for  common  schoolmasters.  They  are  above  the  employment,  but 
not  equal  to  it.  They  can  educate  teachers  a  great  deal  better  than  they 
can  teach  the  a-b-abs,  and  "When  the  sky  falls,  we  shall  catch  larks." 
Experience  abundantly  proves  that  many  who  go  from  college  halls  to 
try  their  hand  in  district  school-houses,  are  greatly  surpassed  by  some 
who  never  saw  a  college  in  their  lives;  and  if  it  were  the  main  object 
of  a  collegiate  education  to  furnish  schoolmasters,  every  one  must  see 
how  very  inadequate  would  be  the  supply. 

The  academies  can  do  more  than  the  colleges  in  educating  teachers, 
and  they  are  entitled  to  a  great  deal  of  credit  for  what  they  have  done; 
but  something  more  is  wanted.  While  I  cannot  agree  with  those,  on 


222  DR.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFIELD. 

the  one  hand,  who  speak  disparagingly  of  our  academies,  as  teachers' 
seminaries,  I  am  equally  unable,  on  the  other,  to  coincide  with  those 
who  think  we  need  no  other  class  of  Teachers'  Institutes.  The  truth,  it 
seems  to  me,  lies  between  these  two  extremes.  Let  the  academies  do 
what  they  can.  There  is  room  for  their  most  strenuous  endeavors,  with- 
out interfering  at  all  with  the  recent  movement  on  the  part  of  benev- 
olent individuals  and  the  State  in  the  same  direction.  If  a  sufficient 
number  of  Teachers'  Seminaries  could  be  established  to  educate  all 
the  schoolmasters  and  mistresses  that  are  wanted,  the  case  would  be 
different.  But  when  we  remember  that  there  are  more  than  three 
thousand  school  districts  in  Massachusetts,  requiring  almost  double 
the  number  of  teachers  (including  winter  and  summer  schools),  it 
seems  as  if  every  one  must  see  that  the  agency  of  the  academies  in 
helping  to  furnish  them  cannot  be  dispensed  with.  Let  those  of  them 
which  already  have  teachers'  departments,  make  them  still  more  thor- 
ough, and  let  others  come  into  the  same  arrangement.  Still,  there  will 
be  ample  room  for  another  class  of  seminaries,  conveniently  located 
in  different  parts  of  the  Commonwealth,  exclusively  devoted  to  the 
education  of  teachers,  both  male  and  female. 

Our  three  State  Normal  Schools  are  just  these  seminaries.  Their  sole 
object  is  to  raise  the  standard  of  popular  education  by  furnishing  the 
Public  Schools  with  abler  teachers  than  they  now  have,  or  can  have, 
without  some  such  provision.  Leaving  to  our  excellent  academies  the 
task  of  fitting  young  men  for  college,  and  for  the  various  departments 
of  business,  they  propose  to  take  as  many  promising  youth  of  both 
sexes  as  they  can  accommodate,  and  qualify  them  thoroughly  for  teach- 
ing. This,  and  this  only,  is  what  the  Normal  Schools  propose;  and  it 
is  too  plain  to  need  argument,  that,  with  good  accommodations  and 
able  teachers,  they  can  do  more  than  the  academies  and  high  schools 
in  this  particular  department.  They  must  do  more  to  entitle  themselves 
to  public  confidence  and  patronage. 

Are  they,  then  just  such  Teachers'  Seminaries  as  we  want?  Let  us 
visit  them  and  see.  The  accommodations  are  ample,  and  all  the  ar- 
rangements highly  convenient.  The  buildings  are  new  and  handsome. 
The  grounds  are  inviting,  and  such  ornaments  as  time  alone  can  add, 
will  make  them  still  more  so.  The  locations  are  healthful,  and  far  re- 
moved from  dangerous  allurements.  The  principals  are  men  who  have 
distinguished  themselves  as  able  and  successful  teachers  in  the  Com- 
mon Schools,  and  their  assistants  are  selected  with  special  regard  to 
the  requisite  qualifications.  By  the  wise  and  liberal  policy  of  the  State, 
tuition  is  free.  Every  branch  of  Common  School  education  is  taught, 
and  much  more  thoroughly  taught,  than,  for  the  want  of  time,  any  of 
these  branches  can  be  in  our  best  academies.  Let  those  who  doubt  it  go 
into  one  of  these  Normal  Schools,  and  witness  the  drilling,  and  listen 
to  the  recitations,  for  a  single  forenoon,  and  judge  for  themselves.  No 
scholar  escapes:  no  one  can  be  superficial  or  hesitate  without  being 
made  to  feel  it  to  the  quick.  The  design  is  to  make  prompt  and  able 
teachers,  by  giving  line  upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept;  to  make 
them  so  familiar  with  the  whole  range  of  studies,  that  when  they 
come  to  take  charge  of  the  schools,  they  shall  never  be  at  a  loss,  never 
keep  a  class  waiting  while  they  turn  over  books  to  refresh  their 
own  memories.  The  object  is,  as  far  as  practicable,  to  make  every 
teacher  as  true  and  quick  as  steel;  and  this  cannot  be  done  but  by 
severe  drilling,  by  waking  up  the  mind  to  its  best  efforts,  and  keeping 
it  wide  awake  from  morning  to  night.  To  be  a  first-rate  schoolmaster, 
a  man  must  be  able  to  attend  to  twenty  things  at  once.  To  this  end,  he 
must  be  perfectly  at  home  in  all  the  studies, , as  I  have  before  said; 
and  I  am  satisfied  there  is  no  such  place  for  getting  armed  and 


DB.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFIELD.  223 

equipped  at  all  points,  as  in  a  good  Normal  School.  If  any  branch  is 
superficially  taught  in  these  schools,  it  must  be  the  fault  of  the  prin- 
cipal or  his  assistants;  and  if  any  incompetent  or  unfaithful  instruc- 
tor should  ever  be  retained,  it  will  be  the  fault  of  the  Board  of  Ed- 
ucation. 

But  something  more  is  necessary  to  furnish  the  best  class  of  teach- 
ers, than  the  thorough  instruction  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  much 
more  is  actually  done  in  the  Normal  Schools.  The  best  methods  of 
teaching,  and  of  the  management  and  government  of  Common  Schools, 
are  made  prominent  topics  of  familiar  lectures  and  conversation.  And 
to  make  these  instructions  in  the  highest  degree  practical,  each  of 
our  Normal  Schools  has  what  is  called  a  Model  Primary  School  at- 
tached to  it,  where,  in  turn,  the  Normal  scholars  have  opportunity  to 
try  their  skill  in  teaching  and  governing,  under  the  general  superin- 
tendence of  the  Principal.  Besides  all  this,  public  sentiment  demands 
that  the  Bible  should  be  made  a  text-book:  and  every  Principal  is  ex- 
pected to  give  moral  lectures  and  religious  instruction,  weekly,  if  not 
daily,  in  the  school-room.  While  the  Board,  under  whose  control  the 
State  has  placed  this  and  the  other  Normal  Schools,  would  not  coun- 
tenance any  mere  sectarian  obtrusion  on  the  part  of  instructors,  they 
would  not,  I  am  persuaded,  continue  any  one  in  his  place  who  should 
reject  the  Christian  Scriptures,  or  omit  to  inculcate  their  divine  pre- 
cepts upon  those  who  are  to  be  the  future  teachers  of  our  Common 
Schools.  Mere  neutrality  in  religion  on  the  part  of  any  principal,  were 
absolute  neutrality  possible,  would  not  be  tolerated,  I  am  sure,  by  the 
present  Board.  And  if  1  thought  the  day  would  ever  come  when  the 
high  and  eternal  sanctions  of  the  Christian  religion  should  no  longer 
be  held  up  in  the  Normal  Schools,  my  fervent  prayer  would  be,  that 
then  "one  stone  might  not  be  left  upon  another." 

I  have  spoken  thus  far  upon  the  direct  agency  which  well-managed 
Normal  Schools  must  needs  have  in  raising  the  standard  of  popular  ed- 
ucation through  the  teachers  whom  they  educate;  but  if  they  succeed, 
there  will  be  an  indirect  influence,  equally  auspicious,  if  not  more  so. 
The  public  expect,  and  have  a  right  to  expect,  that  they  will  send  out 
model  teachers;  not  that  all  will  be  superior  to  those  who  have  gone 
before  them ;  but  that  some,  that  many  will  excel,  in  proportion  to  their 
superior  advantages;  and  that  their  better  and  more  thorough  methods 
of  instruction  will  be  copied  by  other  teachers.  This  is  the  order  of  na- 
ture in  the  progress  of  all  human  improvements.  The  few  who  are  most 
highly  endowed,  or  best  instructed,  are  looked  up  to  as  models  by  the 
masses  in  every  community.  The  fortunate  inventor  of  a  labor-saving 
machine,  or  the  discoverer  of  some  new  principle  of  physical  science, 
is  a  public  benefactor,  even  though  he  should  not  teach  one  in  a 
thousand  the  use  of  the  machine  or  the  application  of  the  principle. 
The  man  who  invents  a  new  and  improved  model  of  a  steam-engine, 
or  builds  a  better  water-wheel  than  any  before  in  use,  or  brings  out 
from  the  power-looms  a  handsomer  and  more  substantial  fabric  than 
any  other  manufacturer,  or  makes  a  cheaper  and  better  button,  while 
he  fills  his  own  pockets,  virtually  teaches  a  thousand  others  how  to 
do  the  same  thing.  The  model,  or  the  article  manufactured,  is  before 
them,  and  their  own  eyes  and  ingenuity  do  the  rest.  So  it  is  in  all  the 
useful  and  ornamental  arts;  so  it  is  in  agriculture;  so  it  is  in  build- 
ing bridges  and  making  roads.  A  single  turnpike,  passing  through  a 
section  of  country  where  the  scraper  had  never  been  seen  before, 
will,  in  a  short  time,  wonderfully  improve  all  the  cross-roads  for  miles 
and  miles  on  both  sides  of  it.  It  is  the  model  road  for  all  the  high- 
way surveyors  far  and  near.  So  with  the  agricultural  school.  Though 
the  pupils  may  be  few  in  number,  yet  when  they  come  to  be  scattered 


224  DB.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFEELD. 

abroad  over  the  farming  districts,  they  will  not  only  teach  others  what 
they  have  been  taught  themselves,  but  thousands  will  watch  their  im- 
proved methods  of  cultivation,  and  profit  by  them. 

The  same  thing  is  true  in  popular  education.  The  public  are  benefit- 
ted,  both  directly  and  indirectly,  by  every  improved  method  of  in- 
struction. Though  the  teachers  from  the  Normal  Schools  should,  for 
some  years  to  come,  bear  but  a  small  proportion  to  the  whole  number 
of  schoolmasters  and  mistresses  in  the  Commonwealth,  while  they  will 
be  raising  up  a  class  of  teachers  under  their  own  improved  and  thor- 
ough methods  of  instruction,  just  so  far  as  they  rise  above  the  ordinary 
level,  their  schools  will  become  model  schools  for  all  the  neighboring 
districts.  Every  valuable  improvement  in  teaching  and  governing  will 
in  time  be  copied,  and  thus  the  indirect  agency  of  the  Normal  Schools, 
in  raising  the  standard  of  general  education,  will  be  extended  far  be- 
yond the  limits  of  their  direct  and  immediate  influence. 

I  am  aware  that  these  anticipations  may  be  regarded  as  quite  too 
sanguine  by  some  who  take  a  deep  interest  in  the  improvement  of  our 
Public  Schools.  They  may  demand  of  us  how  much  the  Common 
Schools  have  yet  been  benefitted  by  the  Normal  Seminaries,  and  be- 
cause their  expectations  have  not  been  answered,  may  set  down  the 
experiment  as  but  litle  short  of  a  failure.  But  they  ought  in  fairness 
to  consider  that  there  has  not  yet  been  time  enough  to  test  it.  It  was 
commenced  but  seven  years  ago,  and  under  several  disadvantages.  We 
had  no  teachers  who  had  themselves  been  trained  up  under  the  system. 
When  they  began,  they  had  much  to  learn,  as  well  as  every  thing  to 
teach.  And  they  had  no  suitable  accommodations.  It  is  only  the  last 
year  that  the  first  school-house  was  built,  and  the  other  two  are  now 
just  finished.  Teachers  cannot  be  thoroughly  educated  in  a  few  months 
under  the  best  system  that  ever  was  devised.  A  regular  course  requires 
two  or  three  years  of  close  study.  But  few  have  enjoyed  the  advantages 
of  the  system  at  all,  and  the  most  highly  favored  have  not  had  time 
to  show  what  they  can  do  since  they  left  the  schools  and  began  to 
teach.  It  would  be  quite  unreasonable,  therefore,  to  judge  of  the 
adaptation  of  the  Normal  system  to  the  wants  of  our  Public  Schools, 
by  what  has  already  been  accomplished.  Give  it  a  fair  trial,  and  if  it 
does  not  meet  the  reasonable  expectations  of  an  enlightened  public, 
let  it  be  abandoned. 

The  great  dificfulty  hitherto  has  been  to  keep  the  pupils  long  enough 
in  professional  training.  The  Board  have  done  what  they  could  by 
their  recommendations  and  by-laws.  The  secretary  and  the  principals 
have  exhausted  their  persuasions,  I  will  not  say  in  vain,  but  without 
any  thing  like  that  degree  of  success  which  they  have  fairly  earned. 
We  are  obliged  to  confess,  that  in  this  respect  we  have  been  disap- 
pointed. We  did  supose  that  fine  accommodations,  free  tuition,  and  the 
best  instruction,  would  be  sufficient  inducements,  not  only  to  fill  up 
the  schools,  but  to  secure  attendance  for  a  reasonable  length  of  time. 
In  this,  I  say,  we  have  been  disappointed.  Many  have  remained  but  a 
single  term,  but  few  have  given  themselves  time  for  the  whole  course, 
and  the  Normal  Schools  have  been  held  answerable  for  their  deficien- 
cies. This  is  unreasonable.  Nobody  ever  pretended  that  the  new  system 
could  work  miracles — that  coming  in  at  one  door  and  going  out  at  the 
other  would  make  good  teachers.  The  Normal  Schools  claim  no  super- 
natural advantages  over  other  seminaries.  Thorough  training  for  any 
profession  is  a  slow  and  arduous  process.  The  Board  of  Education  are 
extending  the  time  as  fast  as  public  sentiment  will  sustain  them;  and 
they  hope  to  be  able,  within  a  reasonable  period,  to  make  it  a  condition 
that  those  who  enter  shall  remain  long  enough  to  reap  all  the  sub- 
stantial advantages  which  the  system  offers. 


DB.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFIEXD.  225 

But  notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  those  who  have  had  the 
best  opportunities  for  judging  and  comparing,  will  bear  us  out  in  claim- 
ing, that  many  of  the  teachers  from  the  Normal  Seminaries  have  dis- 
tinguished themselves  already  in  the  primary  schools,  and  are  giving 
still  brighter  promise,  from  year  to  year,  of  what  may  be  expected 
hereafter.  Where  they  can  be  had,  the  normal  trained  teachers  are 
generally  prefrred;  and  experience,  with  some  exceptions,  no  doubt, 
justifies  the  preference. 

Let  it  not  be  said  or  surmised  that  this  is  a  scheme  to  drive  other 
worthy  teachers  from  the  schools.  It  is  rather  to  aid  them  and  add  to 
their  numbers.  They  cannot  be  spared.  Not  one  district  in  ten  could  ob- 
tain a  teacher  from  a  Normal  School  if  ever  so  much  disposed,  and  for 
a  long  time  yet  to  come  the  great  majority  must  be  trained  elsewhere. 
Let  them  be  trained.  Let  the  most  strenuous  efforts  be  made  by  other 
seminaries  to  raise  the  standard  of  popular  education,  by  furnishing 
better  qualified  schoolmasters  and  mistresses  than  have  yet  been  raised 
up,  and  we  will  repoice  in  the  highest  measure  of  their  success.  Let  a 
competent  number  of  well-educated  teachers  be  provided,  through  what- 
ever agency,  and  the  Board  will  mingle  their  congratulations  with  all 
who  labor  in  the  same  noble  cause. 

Friends  of  popular  education — as  I  am  sure  you  all  are — ministers, 
laymen,  parents,  teachers,  school  committees,  let  me  stir  you  up  to 
your  duties.  A  nobler  field  for  action,  for  educational  labors  and  im- 
provements than  our  own  beloved  Commonwealth  furnishes,  the  sun 
does  not  shine  upon.  A  richer  legacy  than  our  religious  institutions 
and  Common  Schools  never  came  down  from  a  wise  and  pious  ancestry. 
Some  things  can  be  done  up,  and  then  dismissed  as  requiring  no  further 
care  or  labor;  but  it  is  not  so  with  education.  Like  household  work,  it 
is  always  returning  and  never  done. 

We  have  none  the  less  to  do  because  our  fathers  did  so  much,  nor 
will  our  children  be  eased  of  the  burden  by  our  highest  efforts  to  raise 
the  standard.  All  the  toil  is  to  be  gone  over  again  by  each  successive 
generation.  It  is  a  circle  which  returns  upon  itself,  and  will  continue 
to  return  to  the  end  of  time.  The  procession  of  children  coming  upon 
the  stage  has  no  end.  Wait  we  ever  so  long,  it  will  not  pass  by.  When 
we  depart,  they  will  still  be  coming,  and  in  closer  ranks  than  ever. 
Those  who  are  centuries  behind  will  surely  come,  and  the  great  busi- 
ness of  every  generation  will  be  to  educate  the  children  of  the  next. 
What,  therefore,  our  hands  find  to  do,  let  us  do  it  with  our  might. 

Citizens  of  Westfield,  we  congratulate  you  upon  your  educational 
enterprise  and  privileges.  Few  towns  in  the  Comomnwealth  have  acted 
upon  a  wiser  forecast.  Besides  your  primary  schools,  with  doors  wide 
open  to  every  child,  however  poor,  you  have  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
flourishing  academies  in  the  State;  not  waxing  and  waning,  as  many 
do,  but  always  flourishing  under  able  teachers  and  a  supervision  which 
forbids  its  decline.  With  these  high  advantages  you  might  have  rested 
satisfied.  But  when  the  western  Normal  School  was  to  be  permanently 
located,  you  entered  into  an  honorable  competition  for  the  additional 
facilities  which  it  would  bring  to  your  doors.  Favored  by  your  natural 
advantages,  and  entitling  yourselves  by  liberal  subscriptions  to  the 
preference,  you  succeeded.  The  school  which  had  been  for  some  time 
suspended  was  brought  here,  and  reopened  with  temporary  accommo- 
dations, and  now  this  new  and  beautiful  edifice  is  to  receive  it.  Much 
will  it  depend  on  your  co-operation  with  the  Board  and  with  the  teach- 
ers for  its  prosperity.  Upon  your  aid  in  accommodating  the  scholars 

o 


226  DB.  HUMPHREY'S  ADDRESS  AT  WESTFIELD. 

from  abroad  on  reasonable  terms,  and  guarding  them  against  those 
moral  dangers  which  so  easily  beset  the  young,  we  confidently  rely. 
You  will  not  disappoint  this  expectation.  You  will  cherish  this  semin- 
ary as  you  do  your  schools  and  academy.  To  the  cause  of  good  learning 
we  dedicate  it.  To  the  care  and  benediction  of  Heaven  we  commend  it. 
May  it  more  than  answer  the  sanguine  hopes  of  its  projectors,  in  fur- 
nishing teachers  of  a  high  order  for  many  generations. 


ASSOCIATIONS  AND  AGENCIES 

FOB   THE 

IMPROVEMENT  OF  TEACHERS  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 


In  addition  to  the  annual  appropriation  of  seven  thousand 
dollars  for  the  support  of  the  State  Normal  Schools,  Massa- 
chusetts makes  an  annual  contribution  in  aid  of  several  as- 
sociations of  teachers,  for  their  professional  improvement, 
and  the  advancement  of  education  generally. 

TEACHERS'   INSTITUTES. 

A  Teachers'  Institute,  as  the  term  is  now  used,  is  an  as- 
semblage of  teachers  for  a  period  extending  from  one  to 
four  weeks,  for  the  purpose  of  reviewing  the  studies  they 
are  to  teach,  and  to  witness,  and  to  some  extent  practice, 
the  best  methods  of  arranging  and  conducting  the  classes 
of  a  school,  as  well  as  of  obtaining  the  matured  ideas  of  exper- 
ienced teachers  on  topics  of  educational  improvement.  They 
bear  a  close  resemblance  to  the  conferences  of  teachers,  pro- 
vided for  in  the  school  laws  of  Prussia  and  France. 

Massachusetts*  was  the  first  state  to  afford  legislative 
encouragement  to  Teachers'  Institutes.  The  sum  of  twenty- 
five  hundred  dollars  a  year  is  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  to  defray  certain  expenses  incident  to 
this  class  of  meetings. 

Whenever  "reasonable  assurance"  is  given  to  the  Board, 
that  a  number  of  teachers  of  common  schools,  not  less  than 
fifty,  shall  desire  to  assemble  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a 
Teachers'  Institute,  and  to  remain  in  session  for  such  period 
of  time  as  the  Board  shall  determine ;  the  Board,  by  a  com- 
mittee, or  by  their  secretary,  or,  in  case  of  his  inability,  by 
such  person  or  persons  as  they  may  delegate,  are  to  appoint 
a  time  and  place  for  a  meeting,  make  suitable  arrangements 
therefor,  and  give  due  notice  thereof. 

The  Board,  or  their  committee  or  appointee,  must  engage 
teachers  and  lecturers  for  each  institute  that  may  be  called ; 
provide  rooms,  fires,  lights,  attendance,  and  so  forth;  but, 
for  these  purposes,  they  are  not  authorized  to  expend,  on 
any  one  institute,  a  greater  sum  than  two  hundred  dollars. 
By  a  regulation  of  the  Board,  the  personal  expenses  of  the 
secretary  of  the  Board,  incurred  in  calling  and  attending 
the  institutes,  may  be  defrayed  from  said  sum  of  two  hun- 
dred dollars;  but  no  extra  allowance  is  made  for  his  ser- 
vices. The  personal  expenses  of  the  members  for  travel, 
board,  and  so  forth,  are  to  be  defrayed  by  themselves.  The 

•The  following  notices  are  taken  from  Mr.  Mann's  "Tenth  Annual  Report" 


228  IMPROVEMENT   OF   TEACHERS   IN   MASSACHUSETTS. 

committee  of  the  Board,  their  secretary,  or,  in  his  absence, 
the  person  appointed  by  them  or  him,  stands  in  the  same  re- 
lation to  the  institute  in  which  a  teacher  stands  to  his 
school. 

The  instruction  at  the  institutes  is  designed  to  be  of  such 
a  character  as  shall  furnish  a  model  for  common  school  ex- 
ercises, although  the  former  will  naturally  partake  more  of 
the  oral  method  than  the  latter.  Owing  to  the  shortness  of 
the  time  during  which  the  institutes  are  usually  held,  they 
can  do  but  little  besides  giving  some  practical  skill — some 
knowledge  of  the  art  of  teaching.  For  a  mastery  of  prin- 
ciples, or  an  indoctrination  into  the  science  of  teaching, 
Normal  Schools  must  be  the  main  and  the  only  unfailing 
reliance,  in  any  system  of  common  schools. 

The  evenings  of  the  session  are  usually  occupied  by  de- 
bates, or  by  lecturers,  who  treat  of  any  of  the  important 
topics  embraced  in  the  vast  range  of  common  school  inter- 
ests. 

COUNTY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  TEACHERS 

Whenever  any  county  association  of  teachers,  and  others, 
shall  hold  semi-annual  meetings  of  not  less  than  two  days 
each,  for  the  express  purpose  of  promoting  the  interests  of 
common  schools,  such  associations  are  entitled  to  receive 
fifty  dollars  a  year  from  the  state.  For  obtaining  this  sum, 
the  president  and  secretary  of  the  association  much  certify, 
under  oath,  to  the  governor,  that  two  such  semi-annual 
meetings  have  been  held.  The  governor  will  then  draw  his 
warrant  on  the  treasurer  of  the  commonwealth. 

At  the  head  of  this  class  of  associations,  stands  that  of 
Essex  county,  which  was  formed  in  August,  1830,  and 
which  has  held  a  semi-annual  meeting  every  year  to  the 
present  time,  and  was  never  exerting  a  better  influence  on 
the  teachers  themselves,  or  their  schools,  than  now.  Its  ob- 
ject is  declared  to  be  "the  improvement  of  teachers  and  the 
system  of  education  generally." 

STATE  TEACHERS  ASSOCIATION 

The  Massachusetts  Teachers'  Association  was  formed  on 
the  25th  of  November,  1845,  at  a  meeting  of  more  than  two 
hundred  "practical  teachers"  from  every  section  of  the  com- 
monwealth, on  the  call  of  the  Essex  County  Teachers'  Asso- 
ciation. The  Association  meets  annually,  and  continues  in 
session  two  days  for  lectures  and  discussions  on  topics  of 
educational  and  professional  improvement.  In  1847,  "a  com- 
mittee of  publication"  was  appointed,  under  whose  direction 
the  "Massachusetts  Teacher"  was  commenced,  in  1848,  and 


AMERICAN    INSTITUTE   OF    INSTRUCTION.  229 

has  since  been  issued  monthly.  The  state  appropriates  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  annually  in  aid  of  the  objects  of 
the  association. 

AMERICAN  INSTITUTE  OF  INSTRUCTION 

This  institution  had  its  origin  at  a  meeting  of  teachers 
and  other  friends  of  education,  in  Boston,  on  the  15th  of 
March,  1830.  A  committee  then  appointed,  reported  to  a 
convention,  composed  of  several  hundred  persons,  mostly 
teachers,  from  eleven  different  states  of  the  Union,  which 
met  in  the  Representatives  Hall,  on  the  19th  of  August,  in 
the  same  year,  a  constitution,  which,  with  some  alterations, 
was  adopted.  The  object  set  forth  in  the  constitution  is, 
"the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge  in  regard  to  education." 
This  object  has  been  gained  by  the  delivery  of  valuable  lec- 
tures, and  the  discussion  of  interesting  topics  relating  to 
popular  education,  at  the  annual  meeting  in  August,  which 
usually  continues  for  five  or  six  days,  and  the  subsequent 
publication  of  the  same  in  an  annual  volume,  now  amount- 
ing to  twenty.  These  lectures  and  papers  have  been  pre- 
pared by  some  of  the  most  distinguished  educators  and  lit- 
erary men  in  our  country ;  and,  at  the  time  of  the  delivery, 
and  since,  have  done  much  to  advance  common  education 
and  the  improvement  of  teachers.  Much  of  what  we  now 
witness  and  rejoice  in,  as  evidence  of  increased  interest  in 
this  all-embracing  good  cause,  can  be  traced  back  to  the 
efforts  of  the  members  of  this  Institute,  at  their  anniver- 
sary, and  in  their  own  spheres  of  usefulness  and  labor  at 
home. 

Well  might  President  Wayland,  in  his  introductory  dis- 
course, in  1830,  say :  "In  the  long  train  of  her  joyous  anni- 
versaries, New  England  has  yet  beheld  no  one  more  joyous 
than  this.  We  have  assembled  to-day,  not  to  proclaim  how 
well  our  fathers  have  done,  but  to  inquire  how  we  may  en- 
able their  sons  to  do  better.  We  meet,  not  for  the  purpose  of 
empty  pageant,  nor  yet  of  national  rejoicing,  but  to  deliber- 
ate upon  the  most  successful  means  of  cultivating  to  its 
highest  perfection,  that  invaluable  amount  of  intellect  which 
Divine  Providence  has  committed  to  our  hands.  We  meet  to 
give  to  each  other  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  in  carrying 
forward  this  all-important  work ;  and  here  to  leave  our  pro- 
fessional pledge,  that  if  each  succeeding  generation  does  not 
act  worthily,  the  guilt  shall  not  rest  upon  those  who  are  the 
instructors  of  New  England."  In  conclusion,  he  adds,  the 
teacher  "has  chosen  a  noble  profession.  What  can  be  more 
delightful  to  a  philanthropic  mind,  than  to  behold  intellec- 
tual power  increased  a  hundred-fold  by  our  exertions,  talent 


230  AMERICAN    INSTITUTE    OF    INSTRUCTION. 

developed  by  our  assiduity,  passions  eradicated  by  our  coun- 
sel, and  multitudes  of  men  pouring  abroad  over  society  the 
luster  of  a  virtuous  example,  and  becoming  meet  to  be  in- 
heritors with  the  saints  in  light;  and  all  in  consequence  of 
the  direction  we  have  given  them  in  youth.  It  becomes  us, 
then,  to  act  worthily  of  our  station.  Let  us,  by  all  the  means 
in  our  power,  second  the  efforts  and  the  wishes  of  the  pub- 
lic. Let  us  see  that  the  first  steps  in  this  course  are  taken 
wisely.  This  country  ought  to  be  the  best  educated  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  By  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  we  can  do 
much  toward  the  making  of  it  so.  God  helping  us,  then,  let 
us  make  our  mark  upon  the  rising  generation." 

This  spirit  has  characterized  many  of  the  eminent  teach- 
ers who  have  lectured  before  the  Institute,  and  have  made 
the  anniversary  meetings  seasons  of  rejoicing,  and  congrat- 
ulation, and  encouragement  in  the  great  work  of  school  im- 
provement. 

The  state  has  appropriated  annually,  since  1836,  three 
hundred  dollars  in  aid  of  the  publications,  and  other  ob- 
jects of  the  Association.  The  annual  volume  of  proceedings 
and  lectures  constitute  a  valuable  part  of  the  educational 
literature  of  the  country.  Many  of  these  lectures  have  been 
re-published  in  England. 

LECTURES  AND  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  INSTITUTE 
OF  INSTRUCTION  from  1830  to  1847.  Eighteen  volumes.  Bos- 
ton: Ticknor. 

These  volumes  embrace  more  than  150  lectures  and  es- 
says, on  a  great  variety  of  important  topics,  by  some  of  the 
ablest  scholars  and  most  successful  teachers  in  the  country. 

CONTENTS. — VOL.  I,  for  1830.  Introductory  Discourse,  by  President  Wayland.  Lec- 
ture I.  Physical  Education,  by  John  C.  Warren,  M.  D.  Lecture  II.  The  Development  of 
the  intellectual  Faculties,  and  on  Teaching  Geography,  by  James  G.  Carter.  Lecture 
III.  The  Infant  School  System,  by  William  Russell.  Lecture  IV.  The  Spelling  of 
Words,  and  a  Rational  Method  of  Teaching  their  Meaning,  by  Gideon  F.  Thayer. 
Lecture  V.  Lyceums  and  Societies  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge,  by  Nehe- 
miah  Cleaveland.  Lecture  VI.  Practical  Method  of  Teaching  Rhetoric,  by  Samuel  P. 
Newman.  Lecture  VII.  Geometry  and  Algebra,  by  F.  J.  Grund.  Lecture  VIII.  The 
Monitorial  System  of  Instruction,  by  Henry  K.  Oliver.  Lecture  IX.  Vocal  Music,  by 
William  C.  Woodbridge.  Lecture  X.  Linear  Drawing,  by  Walter  R.  Johnson.  Lecture 
XI.  Arithmetic,  by  Warren  Colburn.  Lecture  XII.  Classical  Learning,  by  Cornelius 
C.  Felton.  Lecture  XIII.  The  Construction  and  Furnishings  of  School-Rooms  and 
School  Apparatus,  by  William  J.  Adams. 

VOL.  II,  for  1831.  Introductory  Lecture,  by  James  Walker.  Lecture  I.  Education  of 
Females,  by  George  B.  Emerson.  Lecture  II.  Moral  Education,  by  Jacob  Abbott.  Lec- 
ture III.  Usefulness  of  Lyceums,  by  S.  C.  Phillips.  Lecture  IV.  Education  of  the  Five 
Senses,  by  William  H.  Brooks.  Lecture  V.  The  Means  which  may  be  employed  to  stim- 
ulate the  Student  without  the  aid  of  Emulation,  by  John  L.  Parkhurst.  Lecture  VI. 
Grammar,  by  Goold  Brown.  Lecture  VII.  Influence  of  Academies  and  High  Schools  on 
Common  Schools,  by  William  C.  Fowler.  Lecture  VIII.  Natural  History  as  a  Branch 
of  Common  Education,  by  Clement  Durgin.  Prize  Essay  on  School-Houses,  by  W.  A. 
Alcott. 

VOL.  Ill,  for  1832. — Introductory  Discourse,  by  Francis  C.  Gray.  Lecture  I.  The  best 
Methods  of  Teaching  the  Living  Languages,  by  George  Ticknor.  Lecture  II.  Some  of 
the  Diseases  of  a  Literary  Life,  by  G.  Hayward,  M.  D.,  Lecture  III.  The  Utility  of 
Visible  Illustrations,  by  Walter  R.  Johnson.  Lecture  IV.  The  Moral  Influences  of 
Physical  Science,  by  John  Pierpont.  Lecture  V.  Prize  Essay,  on  the  Teaching  of  Pen- 


EDUCATIONAL   PERIODICALS.  231 

manship.  by  B.  B.  Foster.  Lecture  VI.  Nature  and  Means  of  Early  Education,  as  de- 
duced from  Experience,  by  A.  B.  Alcott.  Lecture  VII.  On  Teaching  Grammar  and 
Composition,  by  Asa  Rand. 

VOL.  IV,  for  1883. — Introductory  Lecture,  by  William  Sullivan.  Lecture  I.  On  the 
Importance  of  a  Knowledge  of  the  Principles  of  Physiology  to  Parents  and  Teachers, 
by  Edward  Reynolds,  M.  D.  Lecture  II.  The  Classification  of  Schools,  by  Samuel  M. 
Burnside.  Lecture  III.  Primary  Education,  by  Gardner  B.  Perry.  Lecture  IV.  Emu- 
lation in  Schools,  by  Leonard  Withington.  Lecture  V.  The  best  Method  of  Teaching 
the  Ancient  Languages,  by  Alpheus  S.  Packard.  Lecture  VI.  Jacotot's  Method  of  In- 
struction, by  George  W.  Greene.  Lecture  VII.  The  best  Method  of  Teaching  Geog- 
raphy, by  W.  C.  Woodbridge.  Lecture  VIII.  Necessity  of  Educating  Teachers,  by 
Samuel  R.  Hall.  Lecture  IX.  The  Adaptation  of  Intellectual  Philosophy  to  Instruc- 
tion, by  Abijah  R.  Baker.  Lecture  X.  The  best  Mode  of  Teaching  Natural  Philosophy, 
by  Benjamin  Hale. 

VOL.  V.  1834. — Introductory  Lecture,  by  Caleb  Gushing.  Lecture  I.  The  best  Mode 
of  Fixing  the  Attention  of  the  Young,  by  Warren  Burton.  Lecture  II.  The  Improve- 
ment which  may  be  made  in  the  Condition  of  Common  Schools,  by  Stephen  Farley. 
Lecture  III.  Duties  of  Parents  in  regard  to  the  Schools  where  their  Children  are  In- 
structed, by  Jacob  Abbott.  Lecture  IV.  Maternal  Instruction  and  Management  of  In- 
fant Schools,  by  Af.  Af.  Carll.  Lecture  V.  Teaching  the  Elements  of  Mathematics,  by 
Thomas  Sherwin.  Lecture  VI.  The  Dangerous  Tendency  to  Innovations  and  Extremes 
in  Education,  by  Hubbard  Winslow.  Lecture  VII.  Union  of  Manual  with  Mental  La- 
bor, in  a  System  of  Education,  by  Beriah  Green.  Lecture  VIII.  The  History  and  Uses 
of  Chemistry,  by  C.  T.  Jackson.  Lecture  IX.  Natural  History  as  a  Study  in  Common 
Schools,  by  A.  A.  Gould,  M.  D.  Lecture  X.  Science  of  Government  as  a  Branch  of 
Popular  Education,  by  Joseph  Story. 

VOL.  VI,  for  1886. — Introductory  Lecture,  by  W.  H.  Furness.  Lecture  I.  The  Study 
of  the  Classics,  by  A.  Crosby.  Lecture  II.  Education  for  an  Agricultural  People,  by 
Samuel  Nott,  Jr.  Lecture  III.  Political  Influence  of  Schoolmasters,  by  E.  Washbum. 
Lecture  IV.  State  and  Prospects  of  the  German  Population  of  this  Country,  by  H. 
Bokum.  Lecture  V.  Religious  Education,  by  R.  Park.  Lecture  VI.  Importance  of  an 
Acquaintance  with  the  Philosophy  of  the  Mind  to  an  Instructor,  by  J.  Gregg.  Lec- 
ture VII.  Ends  of  School  Discipline,  by  Henry  L.  McKean.  Lecture  VIII.  Importance 
and  Means  of  Cultivating  the  Social  Affections  among  Pupils,  by  J.  Blanchard.  Lec- 
ture IX.  Meaning  and  Objects  of  Education,  by  T.  B.  Fox.  Lecture  X.  Management 
of  a  Common  School,  by  T.  Dwight,  Jr.  Lecture  XI.  Moral  and  Spiritual  Culture  in 
Early  Education,  by  R.  C.  Waterston.  Lecture  XII.  Moral  Uses  of  the  Study  of  Nat- 
ural History,  by  W.  Channing,  M.  D.  Lecture  XIII.  Schools  of  the  Arts,  by  W.  John- 
son. 

VOL.  VII.  for  1836 — Lecture  I.  Education  of  the  Blind,  by  Samuel  G.  Howe,  M.  D. 
Lecture  II.  Thorough  Teaching,  by  William  H.  Brooks.  Lecture  III.  Physiology,  or 
"The  House  I  live  in,"  by  William  A.  Alcott.  Lecture  IV.  Incitements  to  Moral  and 
Intellectual  Well-Doing,  by  J.  H.  Belcher.  Lecture  V.  Duties  of  Female  Teachers  of 
Common  Schools,  by  Daniel  Kimball.  Lecture  VI.  Methods  of  Teaching  Elocution  in 
Schools,  by  T.  D.  P.  Stone.  Lecture  VII.  Influence  of  Intellectual  Action  on  Civiliza- 
tion, by  H.  R.  Cleaveland.  Lecture  VIII.  School  Discipline,  by  S.  R.  Hall. 

VOL.  VIII,  for  1837. — Introductory  Discourse,  by  Rev.  Elipha  White.  Lecture  I. 
Study  of  the  Classics,  by  John  Mulligan.  Lecture  II.  Moral  Education,  by  Joshua 
Bates.  Lecture  III.  Study  of  Natural  History,  by  John  Lewis  Russell.  Lecture  IV. 
Comparative  Merits  of  Private  and  Public  Schools,  by  Theodore  Edson.  Lecture  V. 
Elocution,  by  David  Fosdick,  Jr.  Lecture  VI.  Relation  between  the  Board  of  Trustees 
and  the  Faculty  of  a  University,  &c.,  by  Jasper  Adams.  Lecture  VII.  School  Reform, 
or  Teachers'  Seminaries,  by  Charles  Brooks.  Lecture  VIII.  Teaching  of  Composition 
in  Schools,  by  R.  G.  Parker.  Lecture  IX.  Evils  of  the  Present  System  of  Primary  In- 
struction, by  Thomas  H.  Palmer.  Lecture  X.  Reading  and  Declamation,  by  William 
Russell. 

VOL.  IX,  for  1838. — Lecture  I.  Literary  Responsibility  of  Teachers,  by  Charles  White. 
Lecture  II.  The  Head  and  the  Heart ;  or,  The  Relative  Importance  of  Intellectual  and 
Moral  Culture,  by  Elisha  Bartlett.  Lecture  III.  Vocal  Music  in  Common  Schools,  by 
Joseph  Harrington,  Jr.  Lecture  IV.  Model  Schools,  by  Thomas  D.  James.  Lecture  V. 
Observations  on  the  School  System  of  Connecticut,  by  Denison  Olmsted.  Lecture  VI. 
Teaching  of  English  Grammar,  by  R.  G.  Parker.  Lecture  VII.  Mutual  Duties  of  Par- 
ents and  Teachers,  by  David  P.  Page.  Lecture  VIII.  Man,  the  Subject  of  Education, 
by  Samuel  G.  Goodrich. 

VOL.  X,  for  1839. — Introductory  Discourse,  The  Education  of  a  Free  People,  by 
Robert  Rantoul,  Jr.  Lecture  I.  Physiology  of  the  Skin,  by  John  G.  Metcalf,  M.  D. 
Lecture  II.  Mind  and  its  Developments,  by  Emerson  Davis.  Lecture  III.  A  Classic 
Taste  in  our  Common  Schools,  by  Luther  B.  Lincoln.  Lecture  IV.  Natural  Theology 
as  a  Study  in  Schools,  by  Henry  A.  Miles.  Lecture  V.  Division  of  Labor  in  Instruc- 
tion, by  Thomas  Gushing,  Jr.  Lecture  VI.  The  Claims  of  our  Age  and  Country  upon 
Teachers,  by  David  Mack.  Lecture  VII.  Progress  of  Moral  Science,  and  its  Applica- 
tion to  the  Business  of  Practical  Life,  by  Alexander  H.  Everett.  Lecture  VIII.  The 
Comparative  Results  of  Education,  by  T.  P.  Rodman.  Lecture  IX.  Physical  Educa- 
tion, by  Abel  L.  Pierson,  M.  D. 

VOL.  II.  NEW  SERIES,  for  1840. — Lecture  I.  Intellectual  Education  in  Harmony  with 
Moral  and  Physical,  by  Joshua  Bates.  Lecture  II.  Results  to  be  aimed  at  in  School 
Instruction  and  Discipline,  by  T.  Gushing,  Jr.  Lecture  III.  Duty  of  Visiting?  Schools, 


232  EDUCATIONAL   PERIODICALS. 

by  Thomas  A.  Greene.  Lecture  IV.  Objects  and  Means  of  School  Instruction,  by  A.  B. 
Muzzey.  Lecture  V.  Courtesy,  and  its  Connection  with  School  Instruction,  by  G.  F. 
Thayer.  Lecture  VI.  On  the  Brain  and  the  Stomach,  by  Usher  Parsons,  M.  D.  Lecture 

VII.  Common  Complaints  made  against  Teachers,  by  Jacob  Abbott. 

VOL.  XII,  for  1841. — Lecture  I.  Best  Method  of  Preparing  and  Using  Spelling 
Books,  by  Horace  Mann.  Lecture  II.  Best  Method  of  Exercising  the  Different  Facul- 
ties of  the  Mind,  by  Wm.  B.  Fowle.  Lecture  III.  Education  of  the  Laboring  Classes, 
by  T.  Parker.  Lecture  IV.  Importance  of  the  Natural  Sciences  in  our  System  of  Pop- 
ular Education,  by  A.  Gray.  Lecture  V.  Moral  Culture  Essential  to  Intellectual  Edu- 
cation, by  E.  W.  Robinson.  Lecture  VI.  Simplicity  of  Character,  as  Affected  by  the 
Common  Systems  of  Education,  by  J.  S.  Dwight.  Lecture  VII.  Use  of  the  Globes  in 
Teaching  Geography  and  Astronomy,  by  A.  Fleming.  Lecture  VIII.  Elementary  Prin- 
ciples of  Constitutional  Law,  as  a  Branch  of  Education  in  Common  Schools,  by  Ed- 
ward A.  Lawrence. 

VOL.  XIII,  for  1842. — Lecutre  I.  Moral  Education,  by  George  B.  Emerson.    Lecture 

II.  Universal  Language,  by  Samuel  G.  Howe.    Lecture  III.  The  Girard  College,  by  E. 

C.  Wines.    Lecture  IV.  School  Room,  as  an  aid  to  Self-Education,  by  A.  B.  Muzzey. 
Lecture  V.    Moral  Responsibility  of  Teachers,  by  William  H.  Wood.    Lecture  VI.  The 
Teacher's  Daily  Preparation. 

VOL.  XIV,  for  1843. — Lecture  I.  The  Bible  in  Common  Schools,  by  Heman  Humph- 
rey, D.  D.  Lecture  II.  The  Classification  of  Knowledge,  by  Solomon  Adams.  Lecture 

III.  Moral  Dignity  of  the  Teacher's   Office,  by   Prof.  7.  H.   Agnew.    Lecture  IV.   A 
few  of  the  "Hows"  of  Schoolkeeping,  by  Roger  S.  Howard.    Lecture  V.  Advancement 
in   the  Means   and   Methods   of   Public   Instruction,   by   David   P.   Page.    Lecture   VI. 
Reading,  by  C.  Pierce.    Lecture  VII.  Some  of  the  Duties  of  the  Faithful  Teacher,  by 
Alfred  Greenleaf.    Lecture  VIII.  Some  of  the  Defects  of  our  Systems  of  Education,  by 
R.  B.  Hubbard.    Lecture  IX.    Importance  of  our  Common  Schools,  by  S.  J.  May. 

VOL.  XV,  for  1844. — Lecture  I.  The  Religious  Element  in  Education,  by  Calvin  E. 
Stowe.  Lecture  II.  Female  Education,  by  William  Russell.  Lecture  III.  Some  of  the 
Obstacles  to  the  Greater  Success  of  Common  Schools,  by  Charles  Northend.  Lecture 

IV.  Some  of  the  Dangers  of  Teachers,  by  Daniel  P.  Gattoup.    Lecture  V.  Natural  His- 
tory as  a  Regular  Classic  in  our  Seminaries,  by  Charles  Brooks.    Lecture  VI.  Classical 
Instruction,  by  A.  H.  Weld.    Lecture  VII.  School  Discipline,  by  Joseph  Hale.    Lecture 

VIII.  Methods  of  Teaching  to  Read,  by  Samuel  S.  Greene.    Lecture  IX.  The  Duty  of 
the  American  Teacher,  by  John  N.  Bellows.    Lecture  X.  The  Necessity  of  Education 
in  a  Republican  Form  of  Government,  by  Horace  Mann. 

VOL.  XVI,  for  1845. — Lecture  I.  Dignity  of  the  Teacher's  Office,  by  Joel  Hawes, 

D.  D.    Address,    The   Formation   and    Excellence   of   the   Female    Character,   by   Joel 
Hawes,  D.  D.    Lecture  II.  The  Duties  of  Examining  Committees,  by  Prof.  E.  D.  San- 
born.    Lecture  III.  The  Perfect  Teacher,  by  Denison  Olmstead,  L.  L.  D.  Lecture  IV. 
Physiology,   by  Edward  Jarvis,   M.  D.  Lecture   V.   Intellectual  Arithmetic,   by  F.   A. 
Adams.    Lecture  VI.  County  Teachers'  Institutes,  by  Salem  Town.    Lecture  VII.  Geog- 
raphy, by  William  B.  Fowle.    Lecture  VIII.  Vocal  Music  in  Common  Schools,  by  A.  N. 
Johnson.    Lecture  IX.  History,  by  George  S.  HiUard. 

VOL.  XVII,  for  1846. — Journal  of  Proceedings.  List  of  Officers.  Annual  Report. 
Lecture  I.  Home  Preparation  for  School,  by  Jason  Whitman.  Lecture  II.  The  Influ- 
ence of  Moral  upon  Intellectual  Improvement,  by  H.  B.  Hooker.  Lecture  III.  The  Es- 
sentials of  a  Common  School  Education,  and  the  conditions  most  favorable  to  their 
Attainment,  by  Rufus  Putnam.  Lecture  IV.  The  Education  of  the  Faculties,  and  the 
Proper  Employment  of  Young  Children,  by  Samuel  J.  May.  Lecture  V.  The  Obliga- 
tion of  Towns  to  Elevate  the  Character  of  our  Common  Schools,  by  Luther  B.  Lincoln. 
Lecture  VI.  Importance  of  Cultivating  Taste  in  Early  Life,  by  Ariel  Parish.  Lecture 
VII.  On  Phonotypy  and  Phonography,  or  Speech-Writing  and  Speech-Printing,  by 
Stephen  P.  Andrews.  Lecture  VIII.  On  the  Study  of  the  English  Language,  by  Z>. 
Huntington. 

VOL.  XVIII,  for  1847. — Journal  of  Proceedings.  List  of  Officers.  Lecture  I.  On  the 
Study  of  Language,  by  Hubbard  Winslow.  Lecture  II.  On  the  Appropriateness  of 
Studies  to  the  State  of  Mental  Development,  by  Thomas  P.  Rodman. 

AGENTS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION 

In  1850,  the  Board  of  Education  were  authorized  to  ap- 
point two  Agents  to  visit  schools,  deliver  addresses,  and  in 
other  ways  co-operate  with  their  Secretary  in  his  labors. 

EDUCATIONAL  PERIODICALS 

Although  the  State  has  not  granted  aid  to  any  Educa- 
tional Journal,  there  has  been  one  or  more  published  in  the 
state  since  1826. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1826,  the  first  number  of  the 
American  Journal  of  Education,  the  first  periodical  devoted 


EDUCATIONAL  PERIODICALS.  233 

to  the  subject,  which  had  appeared  in  the  English  language, 
was  commenced,  and  with  that  title,  and  as  the  Annals  of 
Education,  under  which  name  it  was  published  after  1830, 
continued  until  1839.  Month  after  month,  year  after  year, 
this  ably-conducted  periodical  spread  before  a  limited  num- 
ber of  minds,  broader  and  more  generous  views  of  education 
— its  nature,  objects,  and  methods — than  had  been  before 
entertained.  To  William  Russell,  William  C.  Woodbridge, 
and  Dr.  William  A.  Alcott,  are  the  friends  of  education 
largely  indebted,  for  their  valuable  services  rendered  amid 
many  discouragements,  as  editors  of  this  periodical.  Hardly 
a  number  appeared  for  fifteen  years  in  which  the  special 
education  of  teachers  was  not  advocated  and  enforced.  The 
following  extract  of  the  origin  of  this  Journal,  is  taken  from 
a  letter  by  William  Russell,  Esq. 

"The  Journal  of  Education  had  its  origin  in  the  mind  of  the  late 
Thomas  B.  Wait,  of  Boston,  whose  attention  had  been  peculiarly  at- 
tracted to  the  subject  of  education,  during  his  residence  in  Portland, 
Maine,  at  the  time  when  the  first  movements  were  there  made  for  the 
introduction  of  a  public  system  of  primary  schools.  Mr.  Wait  had  re- 
tired from  business;  but  on  the  return  of  one  of  his  sons  from  the 
West,  on  whom  he  could  devolve  the  active  duties  of  publishing,  he 
applied  to  Mr.  John  Frost,  now  of  Philadelphia,  to  edit  the  intended 
periodical.  Mr.  Frost,  however,  was  suddenly  attacked  with  a  pulmo- 
nary disease,  which  compelled  him  to  resort  to  the  climate  of  the 
West  Indies  for  relief;  and  Mr.  Wait  made  application  to  the  late  Dr. 
Coffin,  of  Boston,  then  engaged  in  editing  the  Boston  Medical  Journal. 
Dr.  Coffin  referred  Mr.  Wait  to  myself;  and  to  this  circumstance  was 
owing  my  subsequent  connection  with  the  Journal,  as  its  editor,  for 
nearly  three  years.  Early  in  the  second  year  of  that  period,  Mr.  Wait, 
finding  the  business  conencted  with  publishing  a  periodical  too  bur- 
densome, disposed  of  it  to  Mr.  S.  G.  Goodrich,  whose  attention,  ere 
long,  was  attracted  to  more  profitable  branches  of  the  business  of  pub- 
lishing; and  the  Journal,  through  the  agency  of  Mr.  T.  H.  Carter,  was 
taken  up  by  Messrs.  Carter  &  Hendee,  and,  under  the  designation  of 
Annals  of  Education,  was  edited  by  Mr.  William  C.  Woodbridge,  as- 
sisted by  Dr.  William  A.  Alcott.  Subsequently  the  work  was  published 
by  Otis,  Broaders,  &  Co.,  in  whose  hands  it  was  discontinued  in  1839." 

In  August,  1838,  the  first  number  of  the  Common  School 
Journal  was  published  under  the  editorship  of  the  Hon. 
Horace  Mann,  during  his  continuance  in  the  office  of  Secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Education,  until  1849,  when  it  passed 
into  the  hands  of  William  B.  Fowler,  by  whom  it  is  still 
edited  and  published  at  Boston. 

In  January,  1848,  the  Massachusetts  Teacher  was  com- 
menced under  the  editorial  charge  of  a  Committee,  ap- 
pointed by  the  Massachusetts  Teachers'  Association.  Its 
publication  is  still  continued  at  Boston. 


NEW  YORK. 


AMONG  the  earliest  and  most  earnest  advocates  of  legis- 
lative provision  for  the  professional  training  of  teachers, 
stands  the  name  of  Governor  De  Wit  Clinton.  In  his  mes- 
sage to  the  Legislature  in  1825,  he  recommends  "to  their 
consideration,  the  education  of  competent  teachers;"  and 
in  1826,  he  again  adverts  to  the  subject  in  the  following  lan- 
guage : 

"Our  system  of  instruction,  with  all  its  numerous  benefits,  is  still, 
however,  susceptible  of  improvement.  Ten  years  of  the  life  of  a  child 
may  now  be  spent  in  a  common  school.  In  two  years  the  elements  of 
instruction  may  be  acquired,  and  the  remaining  eight  years  must  either 
be  spent  in  repetition  or  idleness,  unless  the  teachers  of  common  schools 
are  competent  to  instruct  in  the  higher  branches  of  knowledge.  The 
outlines  of  geography,  algebra,  mineralogy,  agricultural  chemistry,  me- 
chanical philosophy,  surveying,  geometry,  astronomy,  political  econ- 
omy and  ethics,  might  be  communicated  in  that  period  of  time,  by  able 
preceptors,  without  essential  interference  with  the  calls  of  domestic 
industry.  The  vocation  of  a  teacher  in  its  influence  on  the  character 
and  destiny  of  the  rising  and  all  future  generations,  has  either  not 
been  fully  understood,  or  duly  estimated.  It  is,  or  ought  to  be  ranked 
among  the  learned  professions.  With  a  full  admission  of  the  merits  of 
several  who  now  officiate  in  that  capacity,  still  it  must  be  conceded 
that  the  information  of  many  of  the  instructors  of  our  common  schools 
does  not  extend  beyond  rudimental  education;  that  our  expanding  pop- 
ulation requires  constant  accession  to  their  numbers;  and  that  to 
realize  these  views,  it  is  necessary  that  some  new  plan  for  obtaining 
able  teachers  should  be  devised.  I  therefore  recommend  a  seminary  for 
the  education  of  teachers  in  those  useful  branches  of  knowledge  which 
are  proper  to  engraft  on  elementary  attainments.  A  compliance  with 
this  recommendation  will  have  the  most  benign  influence  on  individual 
happiness  and  social  prosperity." 

And  again,  in  his  message  in  1828,  Governor  Clinton 
urges  the  subject  on  the  attention  of  the  Legislature. 

"It  may  be  taken  for  granted,  that  the  education  of  the  body  of 
people  can  never  attain  the  requisite  perfection  without  competent  in- 
structors, well  acquainted  with  the  outlines  of  literature  and  the  ele- 
ments of  science."  He  recommends  with  this  view,  "a  law  authorizing 
the  supervisors  of  each  county  to  raise  a  sum  not  exceeding  $2000,  pro- 
vided that  the  same  sum  is  subscribed  by  individuals,  for  the  erection 
of  a  suitable  edifice  for  a  Monitorial  High  School,  in  the  county  town. 
I  can  conceive  of  no  reasonable  objection  to  the  adoption  of  a  measure 
so  well  calculated  to  raise  the  character  of  our  school  masters,  and  to 
double  the  powers  of  our  artizans  by  giving  them  a  scientific  educa- 
tion." 

In  1826,  Hon.  John  C.  Spencer,  from  the  Literature  Com- 
mittee of  the  Senate,  to  whom  the  message  of  Governor 


236  NEW    YORK    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

Clinton  for  that  year  had  been  referred,  made  a  report,  rec- 
ommending among  other  plans  for  the  improvement  of 
common  schools,  that  the  income  of  the  "Literature  Fund" 
be  divided  among  the  academies  of  the  State,  not  in  refer- 
ence to  the  number  of  classical  students  in  each,  but  "to  the 
number  of  persons  instructed  in  each,  who  shall  have  been 
licensed  as  teachers  of  common  schools  by  a  proper  board." 
He  thus  introduces  the  subject : 

"In  the  view  which  the  committee  have  taken,  our  great  reliance  for 
nurseries  of  teachers  must  be  placed  on  our  colleges  and  academies.  If 
they  do  not  answer  this  purpose,  they  can  be  of  very  little  use.  That 
they  have  not  hitherto  been  more  extensively  useful  in  that  respect  is 
owing  to  inherent  defects  in  the  system  of  studies  pursued  there.  When 
the  heads  of  our  colleges  are  apprised  of  the  great  want  of  teachers 
which  it  is  so  completely  in  their  power  to  relieve,  if  not  supply,  it  is 
but  reasonable  to  expect  that  they  will  adopt  a  system  by  which  young 
men  whose  pursuits  do  not  require  a  knowledge  of  classics,  may  avail 
themselves  of  the  talent  and  instruction  in  those  institutions,  suited  to 
their  wants,  without  being  compelled  also  to  receive  that  which  they 
do  not  want,  and  for  which  they  have  neither  time  nor  money." 

"In  1827,  Mr.  Spencer,  from  the  same  Committee,  reported  a  bill  en- 
titled 'An  act  to  provide  permanent  funds  for  the  annual  appropriation 
to  common  schools,  to  increase  the  Literature  Fund,  and  to  promote  the 
education  of  teachers,'  by  which  the  sum  of  $150,000  was  added  to  the 
Literature  Fund.  And  the  Regents  of  the  University  were  required 
annually  to  distribute  the  whole  income  of  this  fund  among  the  several 
incorporated  academies  and  seminaries,  which  then  were  or  might 
there  after  become  subject  to  their  visitation,  'in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  pupils  instructed  in  each  academy  or  seminary  for  six 
months  during  the  preceding  year,  who  shall  have  pursued  classical 
studies,  or  the  higher  branches  of  English  education,  or  both.'  In  the 
report  accompanying  this  bill,  which,  on  the  13th  of  April,  "became 
a  law,  the  committee  expressly  observe,  that  their  object  in  thus  in- 
creasing this  fund  is  'to  promote  the  education  of  young  men  in 
those  studies  which  will  prepare  them  for  the  business  of  instruc- 
tion, which  it  is  hoped  may  be  accomplished  to  some  extent,  by  offer- 
in  ignducements  to  the  trustees  of  academies  to  educate  pupils  of 
that  description.'  'In  vain  will  you  have  established  a  system  of  in- 
struction; in  vain  will  you  appropriate  money  to  educate  the  children 
of  the  poor,  if  you  do  not  provide  persons  competent  to  execute  your 
system,  and  to  teach  the  pupils  collected  in  the  schools.  And  every 
citizen  who  has  paid  attention  to  it  and  become  acquainted  prac- 
tically with  the  situation  of  our  schools,  knows  that  the  incompetency 
of  the  great  mass  of  teachers  is  a  radical  defect  which  impedes  the 
whole  system,  frustrates  the  benevolent  designs  of  the  Legislature, 
and  defeats  the  hopes  and  wishes  of  all  who  feel  an  interest  In  dis- 
seminating the  blessings  of  education.'  'Having  undertaken  a  sys- 
tem of  public  instruction,  it  is  the  solemn  duty  of  the  Legislature  to 
make  that  system  as  perfect  as  possible.  We  have  no  right  to  trifle 
with  the  funds  of  our  constituents,  by  applying  them  in  a  mode  which 
fails  to  attain  the  intended  object.  Competent  teachers  of  common 
schools  must  be  provided;  the  academies  of  the  State  furnish  the 
means  of  making  that  provision.  There  are  funds  which  may  be  safely 
and  properly  applied  to  that  object,  and  if  there  were  none,  a  more 
just,  patriotic,  and  in  its  true  sense,  popular  reason  for  taxation  can- 
ont  be  urged.  Let  us  aid  the  efforts  of  meritorious  citizens  who  have 
devoted  large  portions  of  their  means  to  the  rearing  of  academies;  let 


NEW  YORK    STATE   NORMAL   SCHOOL.  237 

us  reward  them  by  giving  success  to  their  efforts;  let  us  sustain 
seminaries  that  are  falling  into  decay;  let  us  revive  the  drooping 
and  animate  the  prosperous,  by  cheering  rays  of  public  beneficence; 
and  thus  let  us  provide  nurseries  for  the  education  of  our  children, 
and  for  the  instruction  of  teachers  who  will  expand  and  widen  and 
deepen  the  great  stream  of  education,  until  it  shall  reach  our  re- 
motest borders,  and  prepare  our  posterity  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
glory  and  prosperity  of  their  country.' " 

The  legal  provision  for  the  better  education  of  teachers  rested  on 
this  basis  until  1834,  when  an  act  was  passed,  by  which  the  surplus 
income  of  the  Literature  Fund  over  twelve  thousand  dollars  was 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Regents  of  the  University,  to  be  by  them 
distributed  to  such  academies,  subject  to  their  visitation  as  they 
might  select,  and  to  be  exclusively  devoted  to  the  education  of  teach- 
ers for  the  common  schools,  in  such  manner  and  under  such  regula- 
tions as  they  might  prescribe. 

In  pursuance  of  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  2d  of  May,  1834,  author- 
izing the  Regents  of  the  University  to  apply  a  part  of  the  income  to 
the  Literature  Fund  to  the  education  of  common  school  teachers,  a 
plan  was  reported  on  the  8th  of  January,  1835,  by  Gen.  Dix,  from  the 
committee  appointed  for  that  purpose,  to  the  Regents  with  the  view 
of  carrying  into  effect  the  intention  of  the  act.  This  plan  was  approved 
and  adopted  by  the  Regents;  and  one  academy  was  selected  in  each 
of  the  eight  Senate  districts,  charged  with  the  establishment  of  a  De- 
partment specially  adapted  to  the  instruction  of  teachers  of  common 
schools.  To  support  these  departments,  each  academy  received  from 
the  Literature  Fund,  a  sufficient  sum  to  procure  the  necessary  appar- 
atus for  the  illustration  of  the  various  branches  required  to  be  taught; 
the  sum  of  $191  to  be  appropriated  to  the  enlargement  of  the  acad- 
emical library;  and  an  annual  appropriation  of  $400  to  meet  the  in- 
creased expense  which  might  devolve  upon  the  institution  in  conse- 
quence of  the  establishment  of  the  teachers'  department. 

In  his  annual  Report  for  1836,  the  Superintendent  (Gen.  Dix,)  again 
adverts  to  the  fact,  that  in  the  adoption  of  this  system  'the  Legislature 
has  merely  provided  for  the  more  complete  execution  of  a  design  long 
entertained  so  far  as  respects  the  employment  of  the  academies  for 
this  purpose.  The  propriety  of  founding  separate  institutions,'  he  con- 
tinues, 'upon  the  model  of  the  seminaries  for  teachers  in  Prussia,  was 
for  several  years  a  subject  of  public  discussion  in  this  State.  It  was 
contended,  on  the  one  hand,  that  such  institutions  would  be  more 
likely  to  secure  the  object  in  view;  and  on  the  other,  that  it  might  be 
as  effectually  and  more  readily  accomplished  through  the  organized 
academies.'  After  again  referring  to  the  act  of  April  13,  1827,  he  con- 
cludes : 

"Thus  although  the  plan  of  engrafting  upon  the  academies,  depart- 
ments for  the  preparation  of  teachers,  may  not  have  been  contemplat- 
ed at  the  time,  yet  this  measure  is  to  be  regarded  only  as  a  more 
complete  development  of  the  design  of  the  Legislature  in  passing  the 
act  referred  to." 

"By  the  8th  section  of  the  act  of  April  17,  1838,  appropriating  the  in- 
come of  the  United  States  Deposite  Fund  to  the  purposes  of  education, 
&c.  the  sum  of  $28,000  was  directed  to  be  annually  paid  over  to  the 
Literature  Fund,  and  apportioned  among  the  several  academies  of  the 
State;  and  by  the  9th  section,  it  was  made  the  duty  of  the  Regents  of 
the  University  'to  require  every  academy  receiving  a  distributive  share 
of  public  money,  under  the  preceding  section  equal  to  seven  hundred 
dollars  per  annum,  to  establish  and  maintain  in  such  academy,  a  de- 
partment for  the  instruction  of  common  school  teachers,  under  the  dir- 


238  NEW   YORK   STATE   NORMAL    SCHOOL, 

ection  of  the  said  Regents,  as  a  condition  of  receiving  the  distributive 
share  of  every  such  academy.'  Under  this  provision  eight  academies, 
in  addition  to  those  designated  specially  for  this  purpose  by  the  Re- 
gents, established  departments  for  the  education  of  teachers. 

Desirous  of  knowing  the  practical  operation  of  the  departments  thus 
organized,  the  superintendent  (MR.  SPENCER)  during  the  summer  of 
1840,  commissioned  the  Rev.  Dr.  Potter  of  Union  College,  and  D.  H. 
Little,  Esq.  of  Cherry-Valley,  to  visit  these  institutions,  and  report  the 
result  of  their  examinations  to  the  department,  accompanied  by  such 
suggestions  as  they  might  deem  expedient.  Prof.  Potter  in  his  report, 
after  enumerating  the  various  advantages  and  defects  which  had  pre- 
sented themselves  to  his  observation  in  the  course  of  his  examination, 
observes  in  conclusion: 

'The  principal  evil  connected  with  our  present  means  of  training 
teachers,  is,  that  they  contribute  to  supply  instructors  for  select  rather 
than  for  common  schools;  and  that  for  want  of  special  exercises,  they 
perform  even  that  work  imperfectly.  I  would  suggest  whether  some 
means  might  not  be  adopted  for  training  a  class  of  teachers,  with 
more  especial  reference  to  country  common  schools,  and  to  primary 
schools  in  villages  and  cities;  teachers  whose  attainments  should  not 
extend  much  beyond  the  common  English  branches,  but  whose  minds 
should  be  awakened  by  proper  influence;  who  should  be  made  familiar 
by  practice  with  the  best  modes  of  teaching;  and  who  should  come 
under  strong  obligations  to  teach  for  at  least  two  or  three  years.  In 
Prussia  and  France,  normal  schools  are  supported  at  the  public  ex- 
pense; most  of  the  pupils  receive  both  board  and  tuition  gratuitously; 
but  at  the  close  of  the  course  they  give  bonds  to  refund  the  whole 
amount  received,  unless  they  teach  under  the  direction  of  the  govern- 
ment for  a  certain  number  of  years.  That  such  schools,  devoted  ex- 
clusively to  the  preparation  of  teaching,  have  some  advantages  over 
any  other  method,  is  sufficiently  apparent  from  the  experience  of 
other  nations:  and  it  has  occurred  to  me  that,  as  supplementary  to 
our  present  system,  the  establishment  of  one  in  this  State  might  be 
eminently  useful.  If  placed  under  proper  auspices  and  located  near 
the  Capitol,  where  it  could  enjoy  the  supervision  of  the  Superintendent 
of  Common  Schools,  and  be  visited  by  the  members  of  the  Legislature, 
it  might  contribute  in  many  ways  to  raise  the  tone  of  instruction 
throughout  the  State.' 

From  an  examination  of  these  reports,  the  Superintendent  comes  to 
the  conclusion  that  'these  departments  ought  not  to  be  abandoned,  but 
sustained  and  encouraged,  and  the  means  of  establishing  a  large  num- 
ber in  other  academies  provided.  They,  with  the  other  academies  and 
colleges  of  the  State,  furnish  the  supply  of  teachers  indispensable  to 
the  maintenance  of  our  schools.'  He  recommends  'the  extension  of  the 
public  patronage  to  all  the  academies  in  the  State,  to  enable  them 
to  establish  teachers'  departments;  and  in  those  counties  where  there 
are  no  academies,  the  establishment  of  normal  schools.'  'One  model 
school  or  more,'  he  thinks,  'might  be  advantageously  established  in 
some  central  parts  of  the  State,  to  which  teachers,  and  those  intend- 
ing to  be  such,  might  repair  to  acquire  the  best  methods  of  conducting 
our  common  schools.' 

By  a  resolution  adopted  by  the  Regents  of  the  University,  on  the  4th 
of  May  of  the  same  year,  eight  additional  academies  were  designated 
for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  teachers'  departments;  and 
the  appropriation  to  each  of  the  institutions  in  which  such  depart- 
ments had  been  organized  by  the  Regents,  reduced  to  $300  per  annum. 
At  this  period,  including  the  academies  which  were  required,  under  the 
act  of  1838,  to  maintain  such  departments  in  consequence  of  the  re- 


NEW   TOEK    STATE   NORMAL   SCHOOL.  239 

ceipt  of  a  specified  portion  of  the  Literature  Fund,  the  number  of 
academies  in  which  departments  for  the  education  of  teachers  were 
organized  was  twenty-three,  and  the  number  of  students  taught  in 
them  about  six  hundred." 

The  above  facts  and  extracts  have  been  principally  gath- 
ered from  a  "Report  of  the  Committee  on  Colleges,  Acade- 
mies, and  Common  Schools,"  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives in  1844,  of  which  Mr.  Hulburd,  of  St.  Lawrence,  was 
chairman,  and  the  author  of  the  able  document  referred  to. 
The  Committee,  on  passing  to  the  consideration  of  a  State 
Normal  School,  remark : 

"From  this  recapitulation,  it  will  appear  that  the  principal  reliance 
of  the  friends  and  supporters  of  the  common  schools,  for  an  adequate 
supply  of  teachers,  has,  from  a  very  early  period,  been  upon  the  acade- 
mies; that  the  inability  of  the  latter  to  supply  this  demand,  induced, 
in  1827,  an  increase  of  $150,000  of  the  fund,  applicable  to  their  sup- 
port; and  this  for  the  express  purpose  of  enabling  them  to  accomplish 
this  object;  that  the  Regents  of  the  University,  the  guardians  of  these 
institutions,  characterized  this  increase  of  the  fund  as  an  unwonted 
and  "extraordinary"  act  of  liberality  on  the  part  of  the  State  towards 
them;  explicitly  recognized  the  condition,  or  rather  the  avowed  expec- 
tations on  which  it  was  granted;  accepted  the  trust,  and  undertook  to 
perform  those  conditions,  and  to  fulfill  those  expectations;  that,  to  use 
the  language  of  one  of  the  superintendents,  'the  design  of  the  law  was 
not  sustained  by  the  measures  necessary  to  give  it  the  form  and  ef- 
fect of  a  system;'  that  to  remedy  this  evil,  one  academy  was  specially 
designated  in  each  Senate  district  with  an  endowment  of  $500  to  pro- 
vide the  necessary  means  and  facilities  of  instruction,  and  an  annual 
appropriation  of  $400,  for  the  maintenance  of  a  department  for  the 
education  of  teachers;  and  soon  afterwards  the  sum  of  $28,000  added 
to  the  Literature  Fund  from  the  avails  of  the  U.  S.  Deposite  Fund, 
while  eight  additional  academies  were  required  to  organize  and  main- 
tain similar  departments;  that,  finally,  the  number  of  these  depart- 
ments was  augmented  to  twenty-three,  and  every  exertion  put  forth 
to  secure  the  great  results  originally  contemplated  in  their  establish- 
ment; and  that  in  the  judgement  of  successive  superintendents  of  com- 
mon schools,  the  Regents  of  the  University  and  the  most  eminent  and 
practical  friends  of  education  throughout  the  state,  these  institutions, 
whether  considered  in  the  aggregate  or  with  reference  to  those  spe- 
cially designated,  from  time  to  time,  for  the  performance  of  this  im- 
portant duty,  of  supplying  the  common  schools  with  competent  teach- 
ers, have  not  succeeded  in  the  accomplishment  of  that  object.  Having, 
therefore,  to  revert  again  to  the  language  of  the  superintendent  before 
referred  to,  'proved  inadequate  to  the  ends  proposed,'  may  not  now 
'a  change  of  plan  be  insisted  on  without  being  open  to  the  objection 
of  abandoning  a  system  which  has  not  been  fairly  tested?'  And  have 
the  academies  any  just  reason  to  complain,  if  they  are  not  longer  per- 
mitted to  enjoy  undiminished  the  liberal  appropriations  conferred  up- 
on them  by  the  State  for  a  specific  object;  an  object  which  they  have 
not  been  able  satisfactorily  to  accomplish?" 

This  committee  haying  satisfied  themselves  that  all  for- 
mer legislation  on  this  subject  was  inadequate,  and  having 
examined,  by  a  sub-committee,  the  Normal  Schools  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  inquired  into  their  operation  in  other  coun- 
tries, recommended  the  establishment  of  a  Normal  School 


240  NEW    YORK    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

at  Albany,  "for  the  education  and  training  of  teachers  for 
common  schools,"  and  that  the  sum  of  $9,600  for  the  first 
year,  and  $10,000  annually  for  five  years  thereafter,  in  ap- 
propriations for  its  support.  This  recommendation  was 
adopted  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote. 

This  institution  is  required  to  be  located  in  the  county  of 
Albany;  and  is  to  be  under  the  supervision,  management 
and  direction  of  the  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools  and 
the  Regents  of  the  University,  who  are  authorized  and  re- 
quired "from  time  to  time  to  make  all  needful  rules  and 
regulations ;  to  fix  the  number  and  compensation  of  teachers 
and  others  to  be  employed  therein ;  to  prescribe  the  prelim- 
inary examination,  and  the  terms  and  conditions  on  which 
pupils  shall  be  received  and  instructed  therein — the  num- 
ber of  pupils  from  the  respective  cities  and  counties,  con- 
forming as  nearly  as  may  be  to  the  ratio  of  population — to 
fix  the  location  of  the  said  school,  and  the  terms  and  condi- 
tions on  which  the  grounds  and  buildings  therefor  shall  be 
rented,  if  the  same  shall  not  be  provided  by  the  corporation 
of  the  city  of  Albany;  and  to  provide  in  all  things  for  the 
good  government  and  management  of  the  said  school."  They 
are  required  to  appoint  a  board,  consisting  of  five  persons, 
including  the  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  who  are 
to  constitute  an  executive  committee  for  the  care,  manage- 
ment and  government  of  the  school,  under  the  rules  pre- 
scribed by  the  Board  of  Regents.  Such  executive  committee, 
are  to  make  full  and  detailed  reports  from  time  to  time  to 
the  Superintendent  and  Regents,  and  among  other  things  to 
recommend  such  rules  and  regulations  as  they  may  deem 
proper  for  said  schools. 

The  superintendent  and  Regents  are  required  annually  to 
transmit  to  the  Legislature  an  account  of  their  proceedings 
and  expenditures,  together  with  a  detailed  report  from  the 
executive  committee,  relating  to  the  progress,  condition, 
and  prospects  of  the  school. 

The  city  of  Albany  tendered  the  use  of  a  suitable  build- 
ing, free  of  rent,  for  the  use  of  the  institution,  and  the 
school  was  organized  and  commenced  the  business  of  in- 
struction in  December,  1844,  under  the  charge  of  David  P. 
Page,  Esq.,  of  Newburyport,  Mass.,  as  Principal. 

The  following  members  composed  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, under  which  the  institution  was  organized:  Hon. 
Samuel  Young,  State  Superintendent,  Rev.  Alonzo  Potter, 
D.  D.,  Rev.  Wm.  H.  Campbell,  Gideon  Hawley  and  Francis 
Dwight,  Esqrs. 


NEW  YORK  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

AT  ALBANY. 


THE  Normal  School  for  the  state  of  New  York,  was  es- 
tablished by  an  act  of  the  Legislature  in  1844,  "for  the  in- 
struction and  practice  of  Teachers  of  Common  Schools,  in 
the  science  of  Education  and  the  art  of  Teaching."  It  was 
first  established  for  five  years,  as  an  experiment,  and  went 
into  operation  on  the  18th  of  December,  1844,  in  a  building 
provided  gratuitously  by  the  city  of  Albany,  and  temporar- 
ily fitted  up  for  that  purpose.  In  1848,  an  act  was  passed  by 
the  Legislature  "for  the  permanent  establishment  of  the 
State  Normal  School,"  appropriating  $15,000  toward  the 
erection  of  a  suitable  building.  The  following  year  an  addi- 
tional appropriation  of  $10,000  was  made  for  its  comple- 
tion. A  large  and  commodious  edifice  (See  Fig.  1,  2,  3,  4,  5, 
6,)  containing  a  dwelling-house  for  the  Principal,  has 
accordingly  been  erected  on  the  corner  of  Lodge  and 
Howard  streets,  adjoining  the  State  Geological  and 
Agricultural  Rooms.  To  this  building  the  school  was 

P 


242  NEW   YORK   STATE   NOBMAI,   SCHOOL. 

removed  on  the  31st  of  July,  1849.  At  the  expiration 
of  the  term  of  five  years  for  which  this  institution  was 
originally  established,  and  in  connection  with  the  closing 
exercises  of  the  Summer  Session  ending  September  27,  1849, 
Samuel  S.  Randall,  Esq.,  Deputy  Superintendent  of  Common 
Schools,  pronounced  an  address  in  which  the  origin  and 
progress  of  the  Normal  School  is  thus  graphically  set  forth : 

For  several  years  prior  to  1844,  the  attention  of  the  friends  of  Com- 
mon School  education  in  this  state  had  been  strongly  directed  to  the 
inadequacy  of  the  existing  agencies  for  the  preparation  of  duly  quali- 
fied teachers  for  our  elementary  institutions  of  learning.  Liberal  en- 
dowments had,  from  time  to  time,  during  a  long  series  of  years,  been 
bestowed  upon  the  academies  in  different  sections  of  the  state,  with 
a  view  to  the  attainment  of  this  object;  but  the  practical  inability  of 
these  institutions  to  supply  the  demand  thus  made  upon  them  with  all 
the  resources  at  their  command,  soon  became  obvious  and  undeniable. 
The  establishment  of  Normal  Schools  for  this  special  and  exclusive 
purpose  in  various  portions  of  Europe,  where  popular  education  was 
most  flourishing,  and  in  the  adjoining  state  of  Massachusetts,  long 
and  honorably  distinguished  for  her  superior  public  and  private 
schools,  and  the  manifest  tendency  of  these  institutions  to  elevate  and 
improve  the  qualifications  and  character  of  teachers,  had  begun  to  at- 
tract the  regard  of  many  of  our  most  distinguished  statesmen. 

On  a  winter's  afternoon,  early  in  the  year  1844,  in  a  retired  apart- 
ment of  one  of  the  public  buildings  in  this  city,  might  have  been  seen, 
in  earnest  and  prolonged  consultation,  several  eminent  individuals 
whose  names  and  services  in  the  cause  of  education  are  now  universal- 
ly acknowledged.  The  elder  of  them  was  a  man  of  striking  and  vener- 
able appearance — of  commanding  intellect  and  benignant  mien.  By 
his  side  sat  one  in  the  prime  and  vigor  of  manhood,  whose  mental 
faculties  had  long  been  disciplined  in  the  school  of  virtuous  activity, 
and  in  every  lineament  of  whose  countenance  appeared  that  resolute 
determination  and  moral  power,  which  seldom  fails  to  exert  a  wide 
influence  upon  the  opinions  and  actions  of  men.  The  third  in  the 
group  was  a  young  man  of  slight  frame  and  pale,  thoughtful  visage; 
upon  whose  delicate  and  slender  form  premature  debility  had  palpably 
set  its  seal;  yet  whose  opinions  seemed  to  be  listened  to  by  his  asso- 
ciates with  the  utmost  deference  and  regard.  The  remaining  figure 
was  that  of  a  well-known  scholar  and  divine,  whose  potent  and  bene- 
ficial influence  had  long  been  felt  in  every  department  of  the  cause  of 
popular  education,  and  whose  energy,  activity  and  zeal  had  already  ac- 
complished many  salutary  and  much  needed  reforms  in  our  system  of 
public  instruction. 

The  subject  of  their  consultation  was  the  expediency  and  practica- 
bility of  incorporating  upon  the  Common  School  system  of  this  state 
an  efficient  instrumentality  for  the  education  of  teachers.  The  utility 
of  such  a  measure,  and  its  importance  to  the  present  and  prospective 
interests  of  education,  admitted,  in  the  minds  of  these  distinguished 
men,  of  no  doubt.  The  sole  question  was  whether  the  public  mind  was 
sufficiently  prepared  for  its  reception  and  adoption:  whether  an  inno- 
vation so  great  and  striking,  and  involving  as  it  necessarily  must  a 
heavy  and  continued  expenditure  of  the  public  money,  might  not  be 
strenuously  and  successfully  resisted:  and  whether  a  premature  and 
unsuccessful  attempt  then  to  carry  into  execution  a  measure  of  such 
vital  importance,  might  not  be  attended  with  a  disastrous  influence 
upon  the  future  prospects  of  the  cause  of  education.  These  consider- 
ations after  being  duly  weighed,  were  unanimously  set  aside  by  the  in- 


NEW   YORK   STATE   NORMAL    SCHOOL.  243 

trepid  spirits  then  in  council;  and  it  was  determined  that,  backed  by 
the  strong  and  decided  recommendation  of  the  head  of  the  Common 
School  Department,  immediate  measures  should  be  forthwith  adopted 
for  the  establishment  of  a  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL.  The  men  who  thus 
gave  the  first  decided  impetus  to  the  great  enterprise,  whose  gratifying 
results  are  now  before  us,  were  SAMUEL  YOUNG,  CALVIN  T.  HULBIRD, 
FRANCIS  D WIGHT,  and  ALONZO  POTTER. 

Mr.  Hulburd,  the  able  and  enlightened  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Colleges,  Academies  and  Common  Schools,  of  the  Assembly,  visited 
the  Normal  Schools  of  Massachusetts,  and  after  a  thorough  examina- 
tion of  their  merits  and  practical  operations,  submitted  an  elaborate 
and  eloquent  report  to  the  House,  in  favor  of  the  immediate  adoption 
of  this  principle  in  our  system  of  public  instruction.  The  bill  intro- 
duced by  him,  and  sustained  in  all  its  stages  by  his  powerful  influence 
and  indefatigable  exertions,  and  the  cooperation  of  the  most  zealous 
friends  of  education  throughout  the  state,  became  a  law,  and  appro- 
priated the  sum  of  $10,000  annually  for  five  successive  years,  for  the 
purpose  of  establishing  and  maintaining  a  State  Normal  School  in  this 
city.  The  general  control  of  the  Institution  was  committed  to  the  Re- 
gents of  the  University,  by  whom  an  Executive  Committee,  consisting 
of  five  persons,  one  of  whom  was  to  be  the  Superintendent  of  Common 
Schools,  was  to  be  appointed,  upon  whom  the  direct  management,  dis- 
cipline and  course  of  instruction  should  devolve. 

In  pursuance  of  this  provision,  the  Board  of  Regents,  in  June,  1844, 
appointed  a  committee  comprising  the  Hon.  SAMUEL  YOUNG,  then  Su- 
perintendent of  Common  Schools,  the  Rev.  ALONZO  POTTER,  Rev.  WM. 
H.  CAMPBELL,  Hon.  GIDEON  HAWLET,  and  FRANCIS  DWIGHT,  Esq.  This 
committee  forthwith  entered  upon  the  execution  of  their  responsible  du- 
ties; procured  on  very  liberal  and  favorable  terms  from  the  city  of 
Albany  the  lease  for  five  years  of  the  spacious  building  in  State  street, 
recently  occupied  by  the  Institution;  prescribed  the  necessary  rules 
and  regulations  for  the  instruction,  government  and  discipline  of  the 
school,  the  course  of  study  to  be  pursued,  the  appointment  and  selec- 
tion of  the  pupils,  &c.,  and  procured  the  services  of  the  late  lamented 
and  distinguished  Principal,  then  of  Newburyport,  Massachusetts,  to- 
gether with  his  colleague,  Prof.  Perkins,  of  Utica,  the  present  Prin- 
cipal, as  teachers.  On  the  18th  day  of  December,  1844,  the  school  was 
opened  in  the  presence  of  a  large  concourse  of  citizens  and  strangers, 
by  an  eloquent  address  from  Col.  YOUNG,  and  by  other  appropriate  and 
suitable  exercises.  Twenty-nine  pupils,  thirteen  males  and  sixteen  fe- 
males, representing  fourteen  counties  only,  of  both  sexes  were  in  at- 
tendance, who,  after  listening  to  a  brief  but  clear  and  explicit  declara- 
tion from  Mr.  PAGE,  of  his  objects,  views  and  wishes  in  the  manage- 
ment and  direction  of  the  high  duties  devolved  upon  him,  entered  at 
once  upon  the  course  of  studies  prescribed  for  the  school.  Before  the 
close  of  the  first  term  on  the  llth  of  March,  1845,  the  number  of  pupils 
had  increased  to  ninety-eight,  comprising  about  an  equal  number  of 
each  sex,  and  representing  forty  of  the  fifty-nine  counties  of  the  state. 
During  this  term  the  musical  department  of  the  school  was  placed 
under  the  charge  of  Prof.  ILSLEY,  of  this  city,  and  instruction  in  draw- 
ing was  imparted  by  Prof.  J.  B.  HOWARD,  of  Rensselaer. 

On  the  commencement  of  the  second  term,  on  the  9th  of  April,  1845, 
170  pupils  were  in  attendance,  comprising  a  nearly  equal  proportion  of 
males  and  females,  and  representing  every  county  in  the  state,  with  a 
single  exception.  Of  these  pupils  about  nine-tenths  had  been  previously 
engaged  in  teaching  during  a  longer  or  shorter  period.  The  term  closed 
on  the  28th  of  August,  with  a  public  examination  and  other  suitable  ex- 
ercises, and  thirty-four  of  the  students  received  the  certificate  of  the 


244  NEW   YORK   STATE   NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

Executive  Committee  and  Board  of  Instruction,  as  in  their  judgment 
well  qualified  in  all  essential  respects,  to  teach  any  of  the  Common 
Schools  of  the  state. 

On  the  15th  of  October  succeeding,  the  school  re-opened  with  180  pu- 
pils, which  was  increased  during  the  progress  of  the  term  to  198  from 
every  county  in  the  state  but  one.  The  death  of  Mr.  DWIGHT,  which 
took  place  on  the  15th  day  of  December,  and  the  transfer  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  POTTER  to  the  Episcopal  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  created  vacancies 
in  the  Executive  Committee,  which  were  supplied  by  the  appointment 
of  the  Hon.  HARMANTJS  BLEECKER,  and  the  Hon.  SAMUEL  YOUNG,  the  lat- 
ter gentleman  having  been  succeeded  in  office  of  Superintendent  of 
Common  Schools  by  the  Hon.  N.  S.  BENTON,  of  Herkimer.  The  sudden 
death  of  Mr.  Dwight,  who  had  taken  a  deep  interest  in  the  prosperity 
and  success  of  the  Institution,  and  had  given  to  its  minutest  details  the 
benefits  of  his  supervision  and  constant  attention,  cast  a  deep  gloom 
upon  the  inmates;  and  the  peculiar  circumstances  under  which  it  took 
place  were  strikingly  indicative  of  the  vain  and  illusory  nature  of  all 
human  expectations.  For  several  weeks  previous  to  his  death,  Mr. 
Dwight  had  manifested  much  interest  in  devising  appropriate  means 
for  the  celebration  of  the  opening  of  the  school,  on  the  18th  of  Decem- 
ber. Alas!  how  little  could  he  imagine  that  the  long  line  of  Normal 
pupils,  with  the  children  of  the  various  public  schools  of  the  city,  to 
whom  also  he  had  been  a  signal  benefactor,  and  hundreds  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  should,  on  that  day,  follow  his  lifeless  remains  to  their  long 
home! 

At  the  close  of  the  third  term,  March  18,  1846,  a  public  examination 
was  held,  which  continued  during  four  successive  days,  and  convinced 
all  who  felt  an  interest  in  the  Institution,  that  the  work  of  preparation 
for  the  teacher's  life  was,  in  all  respects,  thorough  and  complete.  The 
diploma  of  the  Institution  was  conferred  on  forty-seven  graduates. 
During  this  and  the  preceding  term  a  valuable  addition  had  been  made 
to  the  Board  of  Instruction,  by  promoting  to  the  charge  of  several  of 
the  principal  departments,  those  graduates  of  the  Institution  who  now 
so  ably  and  successfully  preside  over  these  departments.  The  Experi- 
mental School,  organized  at  the  commencement  of  the  second  term,  was 
placed  under  the  general  supervision  of  its  present  teacher,  and  has 
proved  an  exceedingly  valuable  auxiliary  in  the  practical  preparation 
of  the  pupils  of  the  principal  school  for  the  discharge  of  their  duty  as 
teachers.  Two  hundred  and  five  pupils  were  in  attendance  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  fourth  term,  on  the  first  Monday  of  May,  1846,  of 
whom  sixty-three  received  a  diploma  at  its  close  in  September  follow- 
ing. During  the  fifth  term,  commencing  on  the  second  of  November, 
one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  pupils  only  appeared,  forty-six  of  whom 
graduated  in  March,  1847.  At  the  commencement,  however,  of  the  sixth 
term  in  May  subsequently,  two  hundred  and  twenty-one  pupils  were  in 
attendance,  of  whom  sixty-four  received  the  diploma  of  the  Institution 
in  September;  and  at  the  reopening  of  the  school  in  November,  two 
hundred  and  five  pupils  appeared.  Up  to  this  period  the  number  of 
names  entered  on  the  Register  of  the  school  as  pupils,  including  those 
in  attendance  at  the  commencement  of  the  seventh  term,  was  seven 
hundred  and  thirty-seven.  Of  these  two  hundred  and  fifty-four  had  re- 
ceived their  diploma  as  graduates,  of  which  number  two  hundred  and 
twenty-two  were  actually  engaged  in  teaching  in  the  Common  Schools 
of  the  state;  and  the  residue,  with  few  exceptions,  in  the  different 
academies  or  in  private  schools.  Of  those  who  had  left  the  school  with- 
out graduating,  nearly  all  were  engaged  during  a  longer  or  shorter 
period  in  teaching  in  the  several  Common  Schools. 

And  now  came  that  dark  and  gloomy  period  when  the  hitherto  bril- 
liant prospects  of  the  Institution  were  overcast  with  deep  clouds  of 


NEW   YORK   STATE   NORMAL   SCHOOL.  245 

melancholy  and  despondency — when  that  noble  form  and  towering  in- 
tellect which,  from  the  commencement  of  the  great  experiment  in  prog- 
ress, had  assiduously  presided  over  and  watched  its  development,  was 
suddenly  struck  down  by  the  relentless  hand  of  the  great  destroyer — 
when  the  bereaved  and  stricken  flock,  deprived  of  their  revered  and 
beloved  guide,  teacher,  friend,  mournfully  assembled  in  their  accus- 
tomed halls  on  that  dreary  and  desolate  January  day  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  year  1848,  to  pay  the  last  sad  obsequies  to  the  remains  of 
their  departed  Principal.  In  the  prime  and  vigor  of  his  high  faculties — 
in  the  meridian  brightness  of  his  lofty  and  noble  career — in  the  ma- 
turity of  his  well-earned  fame  as  "first  among  the  foremost"  of  the 
teachers  of  America,  he  passed  away  from  among  us,  and  sought  his 
eternal  reward  in  that  better  land  where  the  ills  and  the  obstructions 
of  mortality  are  forever  unknown;  where  the  emancipated  spirit,  freed 
from  the  clogs  which  here  fetter  its  high  action  and  retard  its  noblest 
development,  expands  its  illimitable  energies  in  the  congenial  atmos- 
phere of  infinite  knowledge  and  infinite  love.  It  is  not  for  me,  on  the 
present  occasion,  to  pronounce  his  eulogy,  although  I  knew  and  loved 
him  well.  That  has  already  been  done  by  an  abler  hand,  and  it  only 
remains  to  say  that  the  impress  which  his  masterly  and  well-trained 
mind  left  upon  the  Institution,  the  child  of  his  most  sanguine  hopes 
and  earnest  efforts,  and  upon  the  interests  of  education  generally 
throughout  the  state,  of  which  he  was  the  indefatigable  promoter,  has 
been  of  the  most  marked  character,  and  will  long  consecrate  his  name 
and  memory. 

Since  this  period  the  progress  of  the  Institution,  under  the  auspices 
of  its  present  enlightened  Principal,  and  his  devoted  corps  of  assistants, 
has  been  uniformly  onward  and  upward.  At  the  close  of  the  seventh 
term  fifty  pupils  were  graduated,  and  the  eighth  term  opened  with  two 
hundred  and  eight,  of  whom  forty-six  received  their  diploma  at  its 
close.  The  ninth  term  opened  on  the  first  day  of  November  last  with 
one  hundred  and  seventy-five  pupils,  and  at  its  close  forty-three  were 
graduated;  and  the  tenth  term,  which  has  now  just  closed,  opened  with 
upward  of  two  hundred  pupils,  of  whom  thirty-six  are  now  about  to 
graduate. 

The  following  account  of  the  State  Normal  School  is  cop- 
ied from  the  Annual  Circular  of  the  Executive  Committee, 
for  1850 : 

"Each  county  in  the  state  is  entitled  to  send  to  the  school  a  number 
of  pupils,  (either  male  or  female,)  equal  to  twice  the  number  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Assembly  in  such  county.  The  pupils  are  appointed  by  the 
county  and  town  superintendents  at  a  meeting  called  by  the  county 
superintendent  for  that  purpose.  This  meeting  should  be  held  and  the 
appointment  made  at  least  two  weeks  before  the  commencement  of 
each  term,  or  as  soon  as  information  is  received  as  to  the  number  of 
vacancies.  A  list  of  the  vacancies  for  each  term  will  be  published  in 
the  District  School  Journal,  as  early  as  the  number  of  such  vacancies 
can  be  ascertained,  usually  before  the  close  of  the  former  term. 

Pupils  once  admitted  to  the  school  will  have  the  right  to  remain  un- 
til they  graduate;  unless  they  forfeit  that  right  by  voluntarily  vacat- 
ing their  place,  or  by  improper  conduct. 

Persons  failing  to  receive  appointments  from  their  respective  coun- 
ties, should,  after  obtaining  testimonials  of  a  good  moral  character, 
present  themselves  the  first  day  of  the  term,  for  examination  by  the 
Faculty.  If  such  examination  is  satisfactory,  they  will  receive  an  ap- 
pointment from  the  Executive  Committee,  without  regard  to  the  par- 
ticular county,  provided  any  vacancies  exist.  In  such  case  the  pupil 
will  receive  mileage. 


246  NEW   YORK   STATE   NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

By  an  act  of  the  Legislature,  passed  April  11,  1849,  "every  teacher 
shall  be  deemed  a  qualified  teacher,  who  shall  have  in  possession  a 
Diploma  from  the  State  Normal  School." 

QUALIFICATIONS  OP  APPLICANTS.  Females  sent  to  the  school  must  be 
sixteen  years  of  age,  and  males  eighteen. 

The  superintendents,  in  making  their  appointments,  are  urged  to  pay 
no  regard  to  the  political  opinions  of  applicants.  The  selections  should 
be  made  with  reference  to  the  moral  worth  and  abilities  of  the  candi- 
dates. Decided  preference  ought  to  be  given  to  those,  who,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  superintendents,  give  the  highest  promise  of  becoming  the 
most  efficient  teachers  of  common  schools.  It  is  also  desirable  that 
those  only  should  be  appointed  who  have  already  a  good  knowledge  of 
the  common  branches  of  study,  and  who  intend  to  remain  in  the  school 
unjil  they  graduate. 

^ENTRANCE.  All  the  pupils,  on  entering  the  school,  are  required  to 
sign  the  following  declaration: 

'We  the  subscribers  hereby  DECLARE,  that  it  is  our  intention  to  devote 
ourselves  to  the  business  of  teaching  district  schools,  and  that  our  sole 
object  in  resorting  to  this  Normal  School  is  the  better  to  prepare  our- 
selves for  that  important  duty.' 

As  this  should  be  signed  in  good  faith  on  the  part  of  the  pupils,  they 
should  be  made  acquainted  with  its  import  before  they  are  appointed. 
It  is  expected  of  the  superintendents,  that  they  shall  select  such  as  will 
sacredly  fulfill  their  engagements  in  this  particular. 

Pupils  on  entering  the  school  are  subjected  to  a  thorough  examina- 
tion, and  are  classified  according  to  their  previous  attainments.  The 
time  required  to  accomplish  the  course  will  depend  upon  the  attain- 
ments and  talents  of  the  pupil,  varying  from  one  to  four  terms.  Very 
few,  however,  can  expect  to  graduate  in  one  term. 

PRIVILEGES  OF  THE  PUPILS.  All  pupils  receive  their  tuition  free.  They 
are  also  furnished  with  the  use  of  text-books  without  charge;  though 
if  they  already  own  the  books  of  the  course,  they  would  do  well  to 
bring  them,  together  with  such  other  books  for  reference  as  they  may 
possess.  Moreover,  they  draw  a  small  sum  from  the  fund  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  school,  to  defray  in  part  their  expenses. 

It  is  proposed  to  apportion  the  sum  of  $1,700  among  the  256  pupils, 
who  may  compose  the  school  during  the  next  term.  1.  Each  pupil  shall 
receive  three  cents  a  mile  on  the  distance  from  his  county  town  to  the 
city  of  Albany.  2.  The  remainder  of  the  $1,700  shall  then  be  divided 
equally  among  the  students  in  attendance. 

The  following  list  will  show  how  much  a  student  from  each  county 
will  receive,  during  the  ensuing  term: 

Albany,  $2.41;  Allegany,  $10.09;  Broome,  $6.76;  Cattaraugus,  $11.17; 
Cayuga,  $7.09;  Chatauque,  $12.49;  Chemung,  $8.35;  Chenango,  $5.41; 
Clinton,  $7.27;  Columbia,  $3.28;  Cortland,  $6.67;  Delaware,  $4.72; 
Dutchess,  $4.66;  Erie,  $10.93;  Essex,  $6.19;  Franklin,  $8.77;  Fulton,. 
$3.76;  Genesee,  $9.73;  Greene,  $3.43;  Hamilton,  $4.87;  Herkimer,  $4.81; 
Jefferson,  $7.21;  Kings,  $6.97;  Lewis,  $6.28;  Livingston,  $9.19;  Mad- 
ison, $5.44;  Monroe,  $8.98;  Montgomery,  $3.61;  New-York,  $6.85;  Niag- 
ara, $10.72;  Oneida,  $5.29;  Onondaga,  $6.40;  Ontario,  $8.26;  Orange, 
$5.44;  Orleans,  $10.12;  Oswego,  $7.21;  Otsego,  $4.39;  Putnam,  $5.59; 
Queens,  $7.63;  Rensselaer,  $2.59;  Richmond,  $7.32;  Rockland,  $6.07; 
Saratoga,  $4.78;  Schenectady,  $2.86;  Schoharie,  $3.07;  Seneca,  $7.54; 
St.  Lawrence,  $8.59;  Steuben,  $8.89;  Suffolk,  $9.16;  Sullivan,  $5.80; 


NEW   YORK    STATE   NORMAL    SCHOOL.  247 

Tioga,  $7.42;  Tompkins,  $7.31;  Ulster,  $4.15;  Warren,  $4.27;  Washing- 
ton, $3.85;  Wayne,  $7.84;  Westchester,  $6.46;  Wyoming,  $9.85;  Yates, 
$7.96. 

It  is  proper  to  state,  that  if  the  number  of  pupils  is  less  than  256,  the 
sum  to  be  received  will  be  proportionately  increased.  The  above  sched- 
ule shows,  therefore,  the  minimum  sum  to  be  received  by  each  pupil. 
His  apportionment  cannot  be  less  than  as  above  stated,  and  it  may  be 
more. 

This  money  will  be  paid  at  the  close  of  the  term. 

APPARATUS.  A  well  assorted  apparatus  has  been  procured  sufficient- 
ly extensive  to  illustrate  all  the  important  principles  in  Natural  Phil- 
osophy, Chemistry,  and  Human  Physiology.  Extraordinary  facilities 
for  the  study  of  Physiology  are  afforded  by  the  Museum  of  the  Med- 
ical College,  which  is  open  at  all  hours  for  visitors. 

LIBRARY.  Besides  an  abundant  supply  of  text-books  upon  all  the 
branches  of  the  course  of  study,  a  well-selected  miscellaneous  library 
has  been  procured,  to  which  all  the  pupils  may  have  access  free  of 
charge.  In  the  selection  of  this  library,  particular  care  has  been  exer- 
cised to  procure  most  of  the  recent  works  upon  Education,  as  well  as 
several  valuable  standard  works  upon  the  Natural  Sciences,  History, 
Mathematics,  &c.  The  State  library  is  also  freely  accessible  to  all. 

TERMS  AND  VACATIONS.  The  year  is  divided  into  two  terms,  so  as 
to  bring  the  vacations  into  April  and  October,  the  months  for  holding 
the  Teachers'  Institutes.  This  also  enables  the  pupils  to  take  advantage 
of  the  cheapness  of  traveling  by  the  various  means  of  water  communi- 
cation in  the  State,  in  going  to  and  from  the  school. 

The  SUMMER  TERM  commences  on  the  FIRST  MONDAY  IN  MAY,  and 
continues  TWENTY  WEEKS,  with  an  intermission  of  one  week  from  the 
first  of  July. 

The  WINTER  TERM  commences  on  the  FIRST  MONDAY  IN  NOVEMBER, 
and  continues  TWENTY-TWO  WEEKS,  with  an  intermission  from  Christ- 
mas to  New  Year's  day  inclusive. 

PROMPT  ATTENDANCE.  As  the  school  will  open  on  Monday,  it  would 
be  for  the  advantage  of  the  pupils,  if  they  should  reach  Albany  by  the 
Thursday  or  Friday  preceding  the  day  of  opening.  The  Faculty  can 
then  aid  them  in  securing  suitable  places  for  boarding. 

As  the  examinations  of  the  pupils  preparatory  for  classification  will 
commence  on  the  first  day  of  the  term,  it  is  exceedingly  important  that 
all  the  pupils  should  report  themselves  on  the  first  morning.  Those  who 
arrive  a  day  after  the  time,  will  subject  not  only  the  teachers  to  much 
trouble,  but  themselves  also  to  the  rigors  of  a  private  examination. 
After  the  first  week,  no  student,  except  for  the  strongest  reasons,  shall 
be  allowed  to  enter  the  school. 

PRICE  OF  BOARD.  The  price  of  board  in  respectable  families,  varies 
from  $1.50  to  $2.00,  exclusive  of  washing.  Young  gentlemen  by  taking 
a  room  and  boarding  themselves,  have  sustained  themselves  at  a  lower 
rate.  This  can  better  be  done  in  the  summer  term. 

The  ladies  and  gentlemen  are  not  allowed  to  board  in  the  same  fam- 
ilies. Particular  care  is  taken  to  be  assured  of  the  respectability  of  the 
families  who  propose  to  take  boarders,  before  they  are  recommended 
to  the  pupils. 

EXPERIMENTAL  SCHOOL.  Two  spacious  rooms  in  the  building  are  ap- 
propriated to  the  accommodation  of  the  two  departments  of  this  school. 
These  two  departments  are  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  the 
Permanent  Teacher,  who  is  a  graduate  of  the  Normal  School. 


248  NEW    YORK    STATE    NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

The  object  of  this  school  is  to  afford  each  Normal  Pupil  an  oppor- 
tunity of  practising  the  methods  of  instruction  and  discipline  inculcat- 
ed at  the  Normal  School,  as  well  as  to  ascertain  his  'aptness  to  teach,' 
and  to  discharge  the  various  other  duties  pertaining  to  the  teacher's 
responsible  office.  Each  member  of  the  graduating  class  is  required  to 
spend  at  least  two  weeks  in  this  department. 

In  the  experimental  School  there  are  ninety-three  pupils  between  the 
ages  of  six  and  sixteen  years.  FIFTY-EIGHT  of  these  are  free  pupils.  The 
free  seats  will  be  hereafter  given  exclusively  to  fatherless  children,  re- 
siding in  the  city  of  Albany.  This  is  in  consideration  of  an  appropria- 
tion by  the  city  to  defray  in  part  the  expense  of  fitting  up  one  of  the 
rooms  of  the  school.  The  remaining  THIRTY-FIVE  pupils  are  charged  $20 
per  year  for  tuition  and  use  of  books.  This  charge  is  made  merely  to 
defray  the  expense  of  sustaining  the  school." 

COURSE  OF  STUDY. — The  following  is  the  course  of  study  for  the 
School;  and  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  whole  of  it,  on  the  part 
of  the  male  pupils,  is  made  a  condition  for  graduating. 

The  School  is  divided  into  three  classes,  JUNIORS,  MIDDLES  and  SEN- 
IORS. These  classes  are  arranged  in  divisions  to  suit  the  convenience 
of  recitation. 

JUNIORS. 

Reading  and  Elocution. 
Spelling. 

Orthography, Normal  Chart. 

Writing. 

Geography  and  Outline  Maps,  (with  Map 

Drawing,) Mitchell. 

Drawing,   (begun.) 

Intellectual  Arithmetic Colburn. 

Elementary  Arithmetic, Perkins. 

English   Grammar,    (begun,) Brown. 

History  of  United   States Willson. 

Higher  Arithmetic,   (begun,) Perkins. 

Elementary    Algebra,    (begun,) Perkins. 

MIDDLES. 

Reading  and  Elocution. 
Spelling. 

Orthography Normal  Chart. 

Writing. 

Geography  and  Outline  Maps,  (with  Map 

Drawing,) Mitchell 

Drawing. 

Intellectual  Arithmetic, Colburn. 

English  Grammar Brown. 

History  of  United   States Willson. 

Higher  Arithmetic Perkins.  • 

Elementary  Algebra Perkins. 

Human    Physiology, Cutter. 

Geometry,    (begun,) Perkins. 

Perspective  Drawing Lectures. 

Mathematical  Geography  and  Use  of  Globes. 

The  division  of  this  class  composed  of  the  Juniors  of  the  former 
term,  will  not  be  required  to  review  such  studies  as  they  have  already 
completed. 


NEW  YOBK  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL.  249 

SENIORS. 

Higher  Algebra,  Chaps.  VII.  and  VIII,    (omit- 
ting  Multinominal   Theorem   and   Recurring 

Series,)       Perkins. 

Geometry,  Six  Books Perkins'  Elements. 

Plane  Trigonometry,  as  contained  in     ....    Dairies'   Legendre. 

Land    Surveying,       Davies. 

Natural    Philosophy, Olmstead. 

Chemistry,  with  (Experimental  Lectures,)     .     .     Silliman. 

Intellectual  Philosophy Abercrombie. 

Moral  Philosophy, Wayland,  abridged. 

Rhetoric Lectures. 

Constitutional  Law,  with  select  parts  of  the  f  Young's  Science  of 
Statutes  of  this  state,  most  intimately  con--/  Government,  Revised 
nected  with  the  rights  and  duties  of  citizens,  [  Statutes. 

Lectures,  Theory 
and  Practice  o  f 
Teaching,  and 
Experimental 
School. 

Elements    of    Astronomy "  Lectures. 

Lessons  in  Vocal  Music,  to  be  given  to  all. 

The  same  course  of  study,  omitting  the  Higher  Algebra,  Plane  Trig- 
onometry and  Surveying,  must  be  attained  by  females  as  a  condition 
of  graduating. 

Any  of  the  pupils  who  desire  further  to  pursue  mathematics,  can  be 
allowed  to  do  so  after  completing  the  above  course  of  study. 


Art    of    Teaching, 


NORMAL  SCHOOL 

FOB 

FEMALE  TEACHERS   IN  THE   CITY   OF  PHILADELPHIA. 


In  the  Act  "to  provide  for  the  education  of  children  at  the 
public  expense  within  the  city  and  county  of  Philadelphia," 
passed  in  1818,  it  was  made  the  duty  of  the  Controllers,  who 
were  intrusted  with  the  administration  of  the  schools,  "to 
establish  a  Model  School,  in  order  to  qualify  teachers  for 
the  sectional  schools,  and  for  schools  in  others  parts  of  the 
state."  One  of  the  public  schools,  located  in  Chester  street, 
was  accordingly  organized  as  a  Model  School,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Joseph  Lancaster,  whose  system  of  school  organ- 
ization and  instruction  was  introduced.  This  school  was 
used  to  some  extent,  as  a  pattern  after  which  to  conduct  the 
other  schools,  and  as  a  school  of  practice  to  train  the  teach- 
ers, and  to  some  extent  the  monitors  of  the  other  schools, 
up  to  1836,  when  the  system  of  Lancaster  was  modified  so 
far  as  to  substitute  an  older  class  of  females,  graduates  of 
the  school,  as  assistants,  in  the  places  of  the  monitors  select- 
ed from  the  pupils  themselves.  From  this  date  the  school  in 
Chester  street  did  not  differ  materially  from  any  other 
school  of  the  same  grade  until  1848,  when  on  the  solicitation 
of  the  present  accomplished  and  devoted  Principal,  and  the 
recommendation  of  a  committee  of  the  Controllers,  it  was 
re-organized  as  a  Normal  School,  according  to  the  present 
idea  of  such  an  institution. 

The  Normal  School  was  opened  on  the  13th  of  January, 
1848,  by  an  Address  from  James  J.  Barclay,  Esq.,  in  which 
he  gave  a  brief  history  of  the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia, 
and  of  this  new  agency  in  the  system,  "which  contemplates 
the  thorough  training  of  the  female  teachers  in  those 
branches  of  a  good  English  education,  and  in  such  practical 
exercises,  as  will  discipline  and  develop  the  mind,  adorn  and 
elevate  the  character,  insure  the  best  mode  of  imparting 
knowledge,  and  of  instructing  children  in  their  studies,  es- 
tablish uniformity  in  teaching,  prevent  fruitless  experi- 
ments, manifold  mistakes,  and  irreparable  loss  of  time,  with 
all  their  sad  consequences  to  teachers  and  pupils."  In  ref- 
erence to  this  last  point,  the  Principal,  in  his  Report  for 
1850,  observes: 

"How  wide  the  difference,  in  point  of  usefulness  as  well 
as  happiness,  between  the  teacher  trained  to  a  proper  reali- 
zation of  her  duty  as  an  educator,  conversant  with  the  true 


252  NORMAL    SCHOOLS   FOB   FEMALE   TEACHERS    IN   PHILADELPHIA. 

principles  of  her  art,  with  ability  to  apply  them,  and  one 
with  just  knowledge  sufficient  to  pass  an  examination  and 
secure  a  situation;  discovering,  when  too  late,  her  deficien- 
cy, confined  from  day  to  day  to  the  same  round  of  unsuccess- 
ful exertion,  discouraged  by  the  consciousness  of  her  in- 
competency,  and  humiliated  by  the  irresistible  conviction  of 
her  want  of  integrity,  in  continuing  to  occupy  a  place  for 
which  every  day's  experience  proves  her  unfit.  And,  if 
prompted  by  a  sense  of  duty  to  her  pupils,  she  attempts  to 
remove  her  deficiencies  by  study,  her  health  yields  to  her 
over-taxed  strength,  and  she  is  compelled  to  abandon  a  pro- 
fession, which,  but  for  the  want  of  proper  training  before 
engaging  in  it,  she  would  have  ornamented,  and  the  pursuit 
of  which  would  have  added  to  her  happiness,  instead  of 
rendering  her  miserable." 

The  following  account  of  the  school  is  gathered  from  the 
Reports  of  the  Principal,  for  1849  and  1850: 

NUMBER  OF  PUPILS. — The  first  term  of  the  school  was  commenced 
February  1st,  1848,  with  one  hundred  and  six  pupils;  since  which  time 
there  have  been  admitted  one  hundred  and  fifty-five,  exclusive  of  those 
admitted  at  the  end  of  the  last  term;  consequently,  the  whole  number 
who  have  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  the  school,  is  two  hundred  and 
sixty-one. 

The  following  statement  will  exhibit  the  number  belonging  to  the 
school  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  each  term,  and  also  the  admissions 
and  withdrawals  during  the  year: 

Attending    school    August    27th,    1849 143 

Discontinued  at  the  close  of  the  term  ending  February  15th,  1850,      46 

Remaining,         97 

Admitted  at  the  close  of  the  term 53 

Attending  school  February   18th,   1850 150 

Discontinued  at  the  close  of  the  term  ending  July  26th,  1850,     .     .      40 

Remaining 110 

Admitted  at  the  close  of  the  term 40 

Attending  school,  September  2d,  1850 150 

Average  number  belonging  to  the  school  during  the  year,      .     .     .     135 

Average    daily    attendance,        128 

ADMISSION  OF  PUPILS. — Pupils  are  admitted  twice  a  year,  in  February 
and  July.  After  evidence  of  sufficient  age  (15  years)  is  presented,  the 
whole  test  of  the  qualifications  of  candidates  consists  in  determining 
their  proficiency  in  the  branches  prescribed  for  examination.  Previous 
to  the  last  examination,  the  candidates  were  required  to  answer  one 
set  of  questions  orally,  and  one  in  writing;  the  oral  examination  being 
a  guide  in  determining  whether  the  written  answers  were  given  by 
the  candidate  herself,  or  through  the  aid  of  some  one  sitting  near  her; 
it  being  impracticable  always  to  arrange  them  so  as  to  prevent  com- 
munication. The  general  correspondence  between  the  results  of  the 
oral  and  written  examination  proved  the  double  examination  to  be 
unnecessary.  Acting  upon  this  conclusion,  at  the  end  of  the  last  term, 


NORMAL    SCHOOLS   FOR    FEMALE   TEACHERS    IN   PHILADELPHIA.  253 

the  examination  in  orthography,  definition  of  words,  English  gram- 
mar, history  of  the  United  States,  geography  and  arithmetic,  was  con- 
ducted entirely  in  writing. 

The  method  of  conducting  the  examinations,  as  modified,  by  omit- 
ting the  oral  part,  is  as  follows: 

Questions  upon  each  subject  are  prepared  by  the  teachers  of  the  re- 
spective branches,  and  submitted  to  the  Principal,  from  which  he  se- 
lects a  sufficient  number,  to  be  used  in  conducting  the  examination. 

To  prevent  any  improper  influence  that  might  result  from  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  names  of  the  candidates,  a  ticket  having  a  number  upon 
it,  is  given  to  each;  by  which  number  the  applicant  is  known  during 
the  examination;  her  name  not  being  communicated,  until  after  the 
decision  is  made  as  to  her  admission. 

In  determining  the  candidate's  average  of  scholarship  in  any  par- 
ticular branch,  the  whole  number  of  facts  embraced  in  the  answers  to 
the  questions  is  used  as  a  denominator,  and  the  number  answered 
correctly  as  a  numerator;  and  the  part  of  10  expressed  by  this  fraction 
gives  the  average.  Thus,  if  the  number  of  facts  in  a  branch  is  forty, 
and  the  candidate  answers  thirty-five  correctly,  the  average  is  ob- 
tained by  taking  35/40  of  10,  and  is  expressed  by  8.75. 

The  several  averages  in  each  branch,  being  added  together,  and  di- 
vided by  the  number  of  subjects  of  examination,  the  general  average 
of  each  candidate  is  obtained.  The  lowest  average  of  scholarship 
which  shall  entitle  the  candidate  to  admission  is  then  determined 
upon.  At  the  last  examination,  those  having  averages  above  6  were 
considered  qualified  for  admission. 

In  pursuing  the  plan  of  examination  thus  indicated,  although  some 
errors  may  occur,  yet  they  can  not  be  numerous  or  important.  The 
method  leaves  no  room  for  partiality,  as  the  averages  indicating  the 
scholarship  of  the  candidates  must  correspond  with  the  written  evi- 
dinces,  which  are  always  preserved  as  vouchers  for  the  accuracy  of 
the  results. 

Notwithstanding  the  small  number  of  pupils  admitted  to  the  Normal 
School,  compared  with  the  number  of  applicants,  I  am  not  aware  of  a 
single  instance  in  which  a  controller,  director,  teacher  or  parent,  was 
not  satisfied  with  the  propriety  of  the  rejections,  after  having  exam- 
ined the  written  answers  of  the  candidates.  And,  in  every  instance,  I 
have  found  the  teachers  more  surprised  at  the  deficiency  exhibited  by 
their  pupils,  than  disappointed  that  they  were  not  admitted.  The  num- 
ber of  applicants,  admissions  and  rejections,  at  each  examination, 
has  been  as  follows: 

Candidates  Admitted     Rejected 

At  the  organization  of  the  school,     .     .  156  106  50 

Second     examination, 50  40  16 

Third  "  67  35  32 

Fourth  "  58  27  31 

Fifth  "  100  53  47 

Sixth  "  79  40  39 

Total 516  301          215 

The  number  of  admissions  being  but  little  more  than  58  per  cent  of 
the  applicants. 

The  lowest  age  required  of  candidates  for  admission  is  fifteen  years; 
the  average  age  of  pupils  admitted  has  been  fifteen  years  and  ten 
months. 

COURSE  OF  INSTRUCTION.  In  arranging  the  plan  of  instruction,  a  pri- 
mary object  is  to  keep  the  mind  of  the  pupil  constantly  in  contact 


254  NORMAL   SCHOOLS   FOR  FEMALE  TEACHERS   IN  PHILADELPHIA. 

with  subjects  immediately  or  incidentally  connected  with  the  great 
object  of  her  training,  and  to  habituate  her  to  think  in  reference  to 
communicating  her  thoughts  to  others.  In  accomplishing  this,  the  pu- 
pil necessarily  attains  that  mental  discipline,  essential  to  the  forma- 
tion of  habits  of  exact  investigation  and  quick  discrimination,  which 
enable  her  readily  to  comprehend  and  acquire  the  knowledge  of  a 
subject,  as  well  as  to  illustrate  it  with  perspicuity  and  clearness. 

As  the  name  imports,  the  Normal  School  is  designed  to  be  a  pattern 
school;  the  instruction,  therefore,  in  all  its  departments,  from  the 
most  elementary  to  the  highest,  is  adapted,  as  far  as  possible,  to  the 
methods  of  teaching  which  are  intended  shall  be  pursued  by  its  pupils. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  all  children  of  natural  endowments  pos- 
sess an  innate  desire  to  know;  the  eager  inquisitiveness  of  children  is 
proverbial.  Consequently,  the  conclusion  is  self-evident,  that  the  busi- 
ness of  the  elementary  educator  is  to  encourage  this  propensity.  With 
this  view,  the  method  of  instruction  pursued  in  the  Normal  School  ex- 
cludes altogether  routine  recitations,  with  the  text  book  before  the 
teacher  as  a  guide,  and  the  pupils  reciting  from  memory,  that  which 
they  have  learned  merely  as  a  lesson.  No  teacher  uses  a  text  book 
during  the  recitations;  meeting  the  classes  with  a  full  knowledge  of 
the  subject,  and  a  perfect  acquaintance  with  the  widest  range  of  inci- 
dental facts  which  may  present  themselves  in  its  discussion,  she  in- 
vites inquiry;  and  questioning  becomes  as  much  the  business  of  the 
pupils  as  of  the  teacher. 

At  every  stage  of  instruction,  it  is  made  a  prominent  object  to  imbue 
pupils  with  a  just  sense  of  the  importance  of  their  relations  as  teach- 
ers, and  to  cause  them  to  realize,  that  the  whole  duty  of  a  teacher 
does  not  consist  in  hearing  lessons;  but  that  her  business  is  thorough- 
ly to  develop  all  the  intellectual  and  moral  powers,  and  awaken  and 
call  forth  every  talent  that  may  be  committed  to  her  care. 

Carefully  watching  the  results  of  the  training  described,  the  pleas- 
ing conclusion  presents  itself  to  my  mind,  that,  as  the  methods  of 
teaching  are  good  in  the  opinion  of  the  pupils  themselves,  and  as 
mechanical  modes  give  place  to  systems  adapted  to  the  development 
of  the  faculties,  so  the  interest  of  the  pupils  is  awakened;  illustrating 
the  important  fact  that,  whether  in  schools  or  communities,  the  in- 
terest excited  in  education  is  always  in  proportion  as  the  system  of 
instruction  is  good,  and  efficiently  carried  out. 

Infuse  into  the  minds  of  the  pupils  of  our  schools  that  spirit  which 
prompts  them  to  seek  knowledge  for  the  sake  of  itself,  and  they  will 
reach  forward  from  elements  to  principles,  from  lower  to  higher 
branches  of  study,  until  the  mind's  own  food  creates  the  desire  for 
more.  It  excites  that  spirit  which  constantly  cries  "give" — the  out- 
bursting  of  that  innate  principle — the  spur  to  mental  acquirement — 
the  desire  to  know. 

STUDIES. — At  the  organization  of  the  school,  in  the  selection  of  sub- 
jects of  instruction,  next  to  imparting  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
branches  taught  in  the  public  schools,  preference  was  given  to  those 
branches  best  calculated  for  mental  discipline,  in  connection  with 
their  utility  in  the  practical  duties  of  the  pupils  in  after  life.  All  the 
subjects  embraced  in  the  original  plan  of  the  school  are  now  taught  in 
the  regular  exercises  of  each  term.  While  the  range  of  study  is  ex- 
tended, so  as  to  occupy  the  full  period  of  the  pupil's  connection  with 
the  school,  it  is  sufficiently  limited,  to  enable  all  of  ordinary  industry 
and  talents  to  complete  it  in  the  prescribed  period,  if  the  pupil  is 
possessed  of  sufficient  knowledge  at  the  time  of  her  admission. 

Theory  and  Practice  of  Teaching. — Lectures  on  the  Principles  of 
Education;  embracing  mental,  moral  and  physical  education.  Also,  in- 


NORMAL   SCHOOLS  FOB   FEMALE  TEACHERS  IN  PHILADELPHIA,  255 

struction  in  school  government,  and  teaching  the  elementary  branches, 
and  practice  in  teaching. 

Mathematics. — Review  of  elementary  arithmetic,  and  instruction  in 
higher  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry  and  elementary  astronomy. 

Grammar. — Review  of  English  grammar,  and  instruction  in  etymol- 
ogy, rhetoric  and  elements  of  composition. 

Reading. — Instruction  in  English  literature,  and  the  art  of  reading. 
"  History. — Review  of  geography  and  history  of  the  United  States,  and 
instruction  in  the  history  of  America,  history  of  England,  and  general 
history  of  the  world. 

Writing. — Instruction  in  plain  and  ornamental  penmanship. 

Drawing. — Instruction  in  linear  drawing,  exercises  in  drawing  from 
models,  and  principles  of  perspective. 

Music. — Instruction  in  the  elements  and  practice  of  vocal  music. 

Miscellaneous. — Instruction  in  natural  philosophy,  chemistry  and 
physiology,  is  imparted  entirely  by  lectures  and  examinations,  by  the 
Principal.  Instruction  in  the  constitutions  of  the  United  States  and 
Pennsylvania,  is  given  by  the  Principal  and  teacher  of  history. 

In  arranging  the  subjects  and  course  of  instruction,  the  aim  is  to 
restrict  them  chiefly  to  such  branches  or  subjects,  as  are  essential  to 
a  complete  fulfillment  of  the  duties  of  a  teacher,  under  whatever  cir- 
cumstances she  may  be  placed;  and  not  only  in  the  instruction,  but  in 
every  relation  the  pupil  holds  to  the  school,  her  future  destination  as 
a  teacher  is  kept  prominently  in  view. 

A  very  important  feature  of  the  exercises,  is  the  recitation  of  the 
pupils  to  each  other;  in  which  a  free  expression  of  opinion,  in  the  way 
of  criticism,  is  encouraged;  the  modes  of  illustration  being  suggested 
by  the  pupils  themselves,  to  meet  the  particular  cases  under  consider- 
ation. This  leads  to  originality  of  thought,  and  the  application  of 
methods  not  attainable  in  any  other  way.  Thus,  from  the  very  en- 
trance of  the  pupil  into  the  school,  to  the  completion  of  her  course  of 
study,  practice  in  teaching  is  blended  with  positive  instruction;  and 
the  powers  of  the  pupil  to  communicate  her  ideas  to  others,  are  suc- 
cessfully cultivated;  while  exactness  in  the  use  of  language  becomes 
habitual.  The  purpose  of  the  school,  being  particularly  to  develop  the 
talents  of  the  pupils  as  instructors,  after  a  prescribed  course  of  in- 
struction on  any  topic  is  indicated  by  the  .Principal  or  teacher  of  the 
class,  the  recitations  are  left  to  be  carried  on  by  the  pupils  themselves. 

The  method  of  instruction  is  founded  upon  strictly  inductive  prin- 
ciples;— always  proceeding  from  the  known  to  the  unknown.  In  pur- 
suing this  course  much  time  is  required,  and  the  patience  and  skill  of 
the  teacher  are  subjected  to  the  severest  test; — while  mere  routine 
teaching,  or  simply  imparting  positive  instruction,  so  generally  prac- 
ticed because  attended  with  less  labor,  is  carefully  avoided.  In  the 
application  of  the  first  method,  the  mind  being  necessarily  the  active 
agent  in  obtaining  knowledge,  is  unfolded,  while  in  the  latter,  by  its 
being  the  passive  recipient,  it  is  liable  to  be  overburdened  and  the 
memory  only  improved.  If  the  positive  knowledge  acquired  by  the 
inductive  method  is  ever  lost,  the  habit  of  thinking  remains;  and  the 
reasoning  powers  are  developed  and  disciplined. 

In  inculcating  general  principles,  the  theories  are  reduced  to  prac- 
tice; and  the  danger  of  forming  theoretical  teachers  is  thus  avoided. 
By  applying  principles,  under  circumstances  where  error  is  sure  to 
be  pointed  out,  and  corrected  by  the  observation  of  class-mates  and 
teachers,  every  lesson  becomes  an  exercise  of  thought  and  reason. 

SCHOOLS  OF  PRACTICE. — The  schools  of  practice  consist  of  a  girls' 
grammar  school  with  230  pupils,  and  two  teachers,  female  principal 


256  NORMAL    SCHOOLS   FOR   FEMALE   TEACHERS    IN    PHILADELPHIA. 

and  assistant;  and  a  boys'  secondary  school  with  147  pupils,  and  two 
female  teachers,  a  female  principal  and  assistant,  in  the  same  build- 
ing with  the  Normal  students.  At  least  three  pupils  of  the  Normal 
School  are  employed  at  one  time,  in  teaching  in  each  school.  The 
period  occupied  by  the  pupil-teacher  is  about  four  weeks  in  the  term. 

The  pupil-teachers  give  instruction,  under  the  immediate  direction 
of  the  principals  of  the  schools  of  practice;  whose  duty  it  is  to  teach 
with  them  and  for  them; — to  aid  them  by  advice,  suggestions  and  ex- 
ample;— in  effect,  to  instruct  the  classes  through  them  as  aids — not 
as  substitutes.  To  enable  the  principal  to  give  her  undivided  attention 
to  the  inexperienced  pupil-teacher  on  first  taking  charge  of  a  class, 
those  engaged  in  the  school  are  changed  at  such  intervals,  as  to  leave 
two  experienced  teachers  occupied  in  teaching  at  one  time;  and  on 
the  introduction  of  the  third,  the  principal  remains  with  her,  until  she 
can  manage  the  class  alone;  a  new  teacher  is  then  substituted  for  the 
one  having  been  longest  in  practice.  Before  placing  a  pupil  in  charge 
of  a  class,  the  principal  of  the  school  carefully  informs  her  as  to  the 
particular  duties  connected  with  its  instruction  and  management.  If 
after  a  brief  trial,  the  pupil-teacher  is  found  deficient  in  ability,  readily 
to  adapt  herself  to  the  circumstances  of  her  new  position,  she  is  im- 
mediately withdrawn,  her  deficiencies  noted,  and  her  instruction  in 
the  Normal  School  directed  to  their  removal.  The  duty  of  assigning 
lessons  is  performed  entirely  by  the  principal;  the  pupils  being  pre- 
viously examined,  at  the  close  of  the  exercise,  upon  the  subject  of  reci- 
tation. Thus  making  them  immediately  responsible  to  her,  for  their 
progress  in  learning. 

The  successful  management  and  instruction  of  the  classes  in  the 
schools  of  practice,  depend  to  a  great  extent  upon  the  principals  of 
these  schools;  and  this  success  will  be  in  proportion  to  the  attention 
given  to  the  minutiae  of  the  practical  duties  of  the  schools,  with  which 
all  experienced  teachers  are  familiar;  guarding  the  pupil-teacher  from 
falling  into  errors,  instantly  checking  them  when  discovered,  culti- 
vating and  bringing  into  exercise  that  tact  required  to  arouse  the  dull, 
to  keep  in  check  the  restless,  to  secure  the  attention  of  the  indolent, 
and  maintain  a  continued  and  uniform  interest  throughout  the  whole 
class  while  reciting. 

The  position  of  the  principal  thus  occupied,  is  peculiar  in  its  char- 
acter;— requiring  in  a  remarkable  degree  promptitude,  patience  and 
industry;  her  duty  being  not  merely  to  teach,  but  to  impart  through 
others  intellectual  and  moral  instruction;  to  foster  correct  habits,  and 
cultivate  and  bring  into  action  the  powers  of  both  teachers  and  pupils, 
through  the  agency  of  the  former.  The  character  of  these  schools  will 
therefore  depend  entirely  upon  the  manner  in  which  the  principals 
perform  their  duties,  whether  they  are  really  schools  of  practice,  or 
mere  experimental  schools,  in  which  the  pupil-teachers  are  left  to 
learn  to  correct  errors,  by  first  making  them; — wasting  their  own  time 
and  that  of  their  pupils,  in  attempts  to  discover  methods  instead  of 
putting  them  into  practice. 

In  affording  an  opportunity  to  the  Normal  pupils  to  acquire  practice 
in  teaching  and  discipline,  the  question  may  arise,  whether  the  pupils 
whom  they  teach  have  equal  advantages  with  those  taught  entirely 
by  permanent  teachers.  The  success  of  any  school,  depends  in  a  great 
measure  upon  the  ability  and  tact  of  the  principal  in  its  general  man- 
agement. In  a  small  school,  where  the  instruction  is  all  given  by  one 
teacher,  but  little  qualification  is  necessary,  besides  ability  to  teach 
properly;  but  as  the  school  becomes  larger,  the  duties  devolving  upon 
its  head  are  so  far  extended  in  the  general  management  and  discipline, 
as  to  render  the  ability  to  teach  of  comparatively  little  value,  in  the 
absence  of  tact  in  school  government.  Therefore,  as  an  increase  in  the 


NORMAL   SCHOOLS    FOB   FEMALE   TEACHERS    IN    PHILADELPHIA.  257 

number  of  subordinate  teachers  becomes  necessary,  so,  different  qual- 
ifications are  requisite  on  the  part  of  the  principal;  and  while  aptness 
to  teach  is  an  indispensable  qualification,  it  must  be  accompanied  by 
ability  to  control,  and  bring  into  exercise  the  best  powers  of  the  assis- 
tant teachers,  to  insure  the  effective  teaching  of  the  whole  school.  In 
substituting  for  permanent  assistants,  pupil-teachers  who  remain  in 
charge  of  the  classes  for  a  comparatively  limited  period,  the  tact  of 
the  principal,  and  her  skill  in  school  government,  form  so  important 
an  element  in  the  success  of  the  school,  that  no  qualifications  which 
the  pupil-teachers  may  possess,  can  compensate  for  their  absence. 

Under  corresponding  circumstances,  young  teachers  will  be  more 
thorough  in  their  instruction,  and  accomplish  more  work  than  older 
ones:  the  novelty  of  their  position,  their  desire  to  gain  the  approba- 
tion of  those  directing  them,  and  of  the  pupils  themselves;  the  great 
pleasure  derived  from  bringing  into  practice  qualifications  they  are 
conscious  of  possessing,  are  incentives  to  exertion,  which  contribute 
largely  to  success.  Again,  the  pupil-teachers  are  frequently  found  to 
communicate  in  a  manner  more  intelligible  to  the  pupils  than  those 
who  are  further  removed  by  age;  the  difficulty  of  acquiring  a  knowl- 
edge of  a  particular  subject,  being  forgotten  by  the  older  teacher, 
while  not  only  the  difficulty,  but  the  proper  means  to  overcome  it,  are 
yet  fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  younger  ones.  The  zeal  and  energy  of 
the  young  teacher  are  imparted  to  her  pupils;  they  exert  themselves 
more  than  if  under  a  teacher  less  their  equal  in  age.  There  is  more 
sympathy  existing  between  the  pupils  and  the  young  teachers;  friend- 
ships are  formed,  a  desire  to  please  is  engendered,  and  the  discipline 
is  maintained  more  by  self-control  than  by  forced  obedience.  The  deep 
interest  manifested  by  the  pupil-teacher  in  the  progress  of  her  schol- 
ars, seldom  fails  to  produce  great  exertion  on  the  part  of  the  latter, 
and  instances  are  not  unfrequent,  where  the  teacher  and  pupils  emu- 
late each  other,  in  their  efforts  to  promote  one  another's  happiness. 
If  to  all  these,  is  added  the  watchful  care  of  the  principal,  the  results 
can  not  be  other  than  satisfactory. 

The  pupil-teachers,  before  meeting  their  classes,  are  required  care- 
fully to  study  the  lessons  to  be  recited  during  the  day,  that  they  may 
add  interest  to  the  exercises,  by  imparting  instruction  on  subjects  in- 
cidental to  the  lesson.  The  confidence  of  the  class  is  thereby  gained; 
and  finding  that  their  instructor  is  not  compelled  to  rely  upon  the  text 
book,  they  look  upon  her  as  the  teacher,  not  the  mere  agent  to  compel 
the  recitation  of  the  contents  of  the  book.  Thus,  an  interesting  fact 
or  an  appropriate  narrative,  introduced  into  the  exercises,  is  often 
found  to  give  to  the  young  teacher  greater  influence  over  the  class, 
than  all  the  ordinary  means  of  discipline. 

The  pupil-teacher,  accustomed  herself  to  rigid  thoroughness,  insists 
upon  it  from  habit,  in  the  recitations  of  her  pupils;  the  constant  ex- 
planation leads  to  inquiry,  and  this  to  thought;  and  in  this  manner  the 
foundation  of  correct  education  is  laid. 

While  the  general  control  of  the  school,  and  even  much  of  the  teach- 
ing, devolve  upon  the  principal,  the  pupil-teachers  are  made  account- 
able to  her  for  the  deportment  of  the  pupils  while  under  their  care,  and 
also  for  their  progress  in  learning.  It  is  therefore  made  their  duty  to 
report  promptly  to  the  principal  all  cases  of  misconduct,  or  neglect  of 
studies. 

To  render  the  mode  of  instruction  pursued  in  the  schools  of  practice, 
conformable  to  the  methods  taught  in  the  Normal  School,  the  principal 
of  the  latter  devotes  a  portion  of  time  daily,  to  the  supervision  of  those 
teaching  in  them. 

Q 


258  NORMAL    SCHOOLS    FOR    FEMALE   TEACHERS    IN    PHILADELPHIA. 

EXAMINATIONS. — Written  examinations  of  the  pupils  of  the  Normal 
School  are  made  quarterly,  in  all  the  regular  branches  in  which  in- 
struction has  been  given  during  the  term.  As  the  pupil's  continuance 
in  the  school,  her  position  in  the  class,  or  her  promotion  to  a  higher 
one,  depends  upon  these  tests  of  scholarship,  their  results  are  looked 
to  with  much  anxiety.  The  intervals  of  their  occurrence  are  not  suf- 
ficiently great  to  lessen  their  influence  on  the  recitations  of  the  pupils, 
or  the  every-day  discharge  of  duty;  while  their  repetition  is  frequent 
enough  to  afford  sufficient  means  of  estimating  the  improvement.  The 
results  of  these  examinations,  with  the  register  of  the  daily  recitations, 
are  preserved;  affording  a  complete  history  of  the  pupil's  standing  and 
progress,  during  the  whole  time  of  her  connection  with  the  school. 

GRADUATING  CLASSES. — Twice  a  year  certificates  are  granted  to  such 
pupils  as  have  completed  the  prescribed  course  of  study,  and  were  con- 
sidered properly  qualified  to  perform  the  duties  of  teachers  in  the 
public  schools. 

In  determining  the  pupil's  claim  to  a  certificate  as  a  properly  quali- 
fied teacher,  three  leading  requisites  are  considered,  beside  her  moral 
qualities: 

1.  Her  knowledge  of  the  branches  to  be  taught. 

2.  Her  ability  to   communicate   what   she   knows. 

3.  Her  general  literary  attainments. 

Every  teacher  should  be  so  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  branches 
she  professes  to  teach,  as  to  be  able  to  conduct  the  recitations  with- 
out the  use  of  text  books;  as,  in  proportion  to  her  ability  to  do  this, 
she  will  succeed  in  imparting  to  her  pupils  a  knowledge  of  the  subject, 
instead  of  its  mere  definition — the  certain  result  of  mere  routine 
teaching  from  text  books.  It  is  obvious  that  ability  to  illustrate  the 
subject  of  instruction,  must  depend  entirely  upon  the  teacher  herself 
being  so  familiarized  with  it,  as  readily  to  meet  the  pupils'  difficulties 
by  prompt  and  clear  illustrations. 

Although  a  perfect  acquaintance  with  the  subjects  proposed  to  be 
taught,  is  essential  to  the  teacher,  yet,  to  possess  knowledge  without 
ability  to  communicate  it,  would  not  constitute  a  qualified  teacher; 
while  the  greatest  powers  to  impart,  could  not  compensate  for  ignor- 
ance of  the  branches  proposed  to  be  taught. 

Thus,  the  perfect  scholar  may  be  an  unsuccessful  teacher,  while  the 
perfect  teacher  must  be  a  perfect  scholar,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  the 
branches  she  teaches.  The  casual  observer,  or  even  the  inattentive 
child,  does  not  fail  to  distinguish  between  the  mystifying,  misleading, 
stultifying,  and  inefficient  attempts  of  the  mere  scholar  to  teach,  and 
the  developing,  educating,  and  even  creating  power  of  the  thorough 
teacher.  Adopting  these  views  of  the  relative  importance  of  scholar- 
ship and  aptness  to  teach,  and  their  inseparable  connection  as  essen- 
tial qualifications  in  forming  the  perfect  teacher,  no  certificate  Is 
granted  to  a  pupil  deficient  in  either. 

As  a  test  of  the  candidate's  literary  qualifications,  the  results  of 
every  examination,  from  the  time  of  her  admission  to  the  completion 
of  the  full  course  of  study,  in  connection  with  her  daily  recitations,  are 
considered.  In  estimating  her  ability  to  teach,  and  tact  in  school  dis- 
cipline, her  performances  in  the  schools  of  practice,  occupying  more 
than  one-sixth  of  the  time  of  her  pupilage  in  the  Normal  School,  are 
taken  as  a  guide. 

The  moral  character,  industrious  habits,  and  integrity  of  purpose  of 
the  candidate,  are  determined  from  an  acquaintance  extending  through 
a  period  of  time  amply  sufficient  to  arrive  at  a  correct  conclusion. 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  certificate  given  to  graduates  of  the 
Normal  School: 


NORMAL  SCHOOLS   FOB   FEMALE  TEACHERS    IN   PHILADELPHIA,  259 

NORMAL  SCHOOL. 
First  School  District  of  Pennsylvania. 

THIS  is  TO  CERTIFY,  That has  pursued  and  completed,  in  a  satis- 
factory manner,  the  course  of  study  in  the  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  and  is 
deemed  competent  to  impart  instruction  in  the  branches  taught  in  the 
Public  Grammar  Schools. 

Principal. 

By  authority  of  the  Controllers  of  Public  Schools. 

THIS  CERTIFICATE  is  granted  to  ,  a  pupil  of  the  NORM:AL  SCHOOL, 

in  testimony  that  her  literary  attainments,  industrious  habits,  and  in- 
tegrity, qualify  her  to  discharge  properly  all  the  duties  of  a  Teacher. 

President  of  the  Board  of  Controllers. 
Secretary. 

Committee  of  the  Normal  School. 
Philadelphia,  18— 

TEACHERS  AND  EXPENSE  OF  NORMAL  SCHOOLS. — The  fol- 
lowing statistics  of  the  Normal  School,  and  Model  Schools, 
or  Schools  of  Practice  are  taken  from  the  Report  of  the 
Controllers,  for  1850. 

NOBMAL  SCHOOLS  located  in  Chester  Street,  above  Race. 

Number  of  Pupil  Teachers — Girls   136.     Average  attendance   129. 

A.    T.    W.    Wright,    Principal 1,1,000  00 

Mary  E.  Houpt,  Teacher  of  Grammar,  &c 300  00 

Mary  E.  Brown,   Teacher   of  Reading,   &c. 300  00 

Anna  Vanarsdalen,  Teacher  of  Arithmetic,  &c.,     ....       300  00 
Mary  E.   Tazewell,   Teacher   of   History,    &c.f     ....       300  00 

E.  W.  Mumford,  Teacher  of  Drawing, 150  00 

George  Kingsley,  Teacher  of  Music 150  00 

MODEL  SCHOOLS,  Chester  Street,  above  Race. 
Girls'  Grammar  Schools. — Total  230.    Average  attendance  200. 

Sally  F.  Dawes,  Principal $500  00 

Mary    Hunt,   Assistant 250  00 

Boys'  Secondary  Schools. — Total   157.    Average  attendance   140. 

Martha    C.     Brodie,     Principal, $300  00 

Margaret   Bell,   Assistant 20000 

Total  expense  of  the  Normal  School,     .     .  $2,694  66 
Model    Schools,     .     .     2,38239 


$5,077  05 

The  total  expense  of  the  Normal  School  to  the  city,  ex- 
clusive of  the  expense  of  the  Model  Schools,  which  would  be 
increased  by  their  disconnection  from  it,  can  not  exceed 
$2,000,  and  for  this  sum,  every  Primary,  Secondary,  and 
Grammar  School,  will  derive  benefits  which  could  not  be  se- 
cured by  the  direct  expenditure  of  a  much  larger  sum.  The 
Controllers  bear  the  following  testimony  to  the  results  of  the 
school  for  1850 :  "The  Normal  School  has  been  in  successful 
operation  through  the  year,  and  has  fully  met  the  expecta- 
tions of  its  most  sanguine  friends.  Already  a  number  of  the 
pupils  have  been  elected  as  teachers  in  several  of  our 


260  NORMAL    SCHOOLS   FOR   FEMALE   TEACHERS   IN   PHILADELPHIA. 

schools;  and  from  their  efficiency  and  aptness  to  teach,  we 
may  look  to  this  school  for  a  constant  supply  of  teachers, 
not  only  well  instructed  in  the  different  branches  taught  in 
our  public  schools,  but  capable  also  of  imparting  it  to  their 
pupils." 

The  following  statistics  of  the  Public  Schools  of  Phila- 
delphia, are  gathered  from  the  "Thirty-second  Annual  Re- 
port of  the  Controllers  of  the  Public  Schools  of  the  City  and 
County  of  Philadelphia,  composing  the  First  School  District 
of  Pennsylvania,  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1850."  pp. 
244.  The  whole  document  is  highly  creditable  to  the  city,  and 
the  Report  of  John  S.  Hart,  LL.  D.,  Principal  of  the  High 
School,  as  well  as  that  of  Dr.  Wright,  Principal  of  the  Nor- 
mal School,  should  be  read  and  studied  by  every  officer  and 
teacher  connected  with  the  administration  and  instruction 
of  Public  Schools  in  every  large  city  in  our  country.  It  must 
lead  to  the  establishment  of  a  High  School  where  it  does  not 
now  exist,  and  of  a  Normal  School  in  each  city,  as  Boston, 
Providence,  New  York,  Cincinnati,  New  Orleans,  &c. 

Population  of  First  School  District,  in  1850 425,000 

Number  of  Public  Schools 256 

Classification  of  the  Schools, — 

High    School   for   Boys, 1 

Normal    School, 1 

Grammar    Schools 53 

Secondary    Schools, 29 

Primary    Schools 132 

District  or  unclassified  Schools, 40 

Number  of  Scholars, — 

Males 23,706 

Females, 21,677 


Total,        45.383 

Number  of  Teachers, — 

Male, 81 

Females 646 

Total, 727 

Average  number  of  pupils  to  each  Teacher 62 

Amount  expended  during  the  year,  for 

Salaries    and    Teachers,        $178,325  84 

Books   and    Stationery,       36,213  07 

Sites,   Buildings   and   Furniture 40,906  63 

Fuel,  Furnaces  and  Stoves 13,422  72 

Total   expense   for  all   School   purposes, 332,433  21 

Amount  of  current  expenses,  exclusive  of  houses  and 

furniture $291,52658 

Average  of  current  expense  to  each  pupil 6  42 

Average  of  expense  for  each  pupil,  exclusive  of 

books,    &c.,        5  67 

Average  expense  of  books  and  stationery  to  each  pupil,  75 


RHODE  ISLAND. 


The  following  extracts  from  the  Report  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Public  Schools  for  1845,  will  show  the  steps  which 
were  taken  from  1843  to  1848,  to  improve  the  qualifications 
for  teachers,  and  make  their  labors  more  serviceable  to  the 
schools. 

BOOKS   ON   EDUCATION. 

"As  a  permanent  depository  of  the  most  valuable  books  and  docu- 
ments relating  to  schools,  school  systems,  and  particularly  to  the 
practical  departments  of  education,  I  have  nearly  completed  arrange- 
ments, to  establish  a  library  of  education  in  every  town,  either  to  be 
under  the  management  of  the  school  committee  of  the  town,  or  of 
some  district  or  town  library  association,  and  in  either  case  to  be 
accessible  to  teachers,  parents,  and  all  interested  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  school  system,  or  the  work  of  the  more  complete,  thorough 
and  practical  education  of  the  whole  community.  Each  library  will 
contain  about  thirty  bound  volumes,  and  as  many  pamphlets.  To  these 
libraries,  the  Legislature  might  from  time  to  time  hereafter,  forward 
all  laws  and  documents  relating  to  the  public  schools  of  this  state, 
and  at  a  small  annual  expense,  procure  the  most  valuable  books  and 
periodicals  which  should  be  published  on  the  theory  and  practice  of 
teaching,  and  the  official  school  documents  of  other  states,  and  thus 
keep  up  with  the  progress  of  improvement  in  every  department  of  pop- 
ular education." 

MODEL,    SCHOOLS. 

"Whenever  called  upon  by  school  committees,  and  especially  in  ref- 
erence to  schools  which  from  their  location  might  become,  under  good 
teachers,  models  in  all  the  essential  features  of  arrangement,  instruc- 
tion and  discipline,  for  other  schools  in  their  vicinity,  I  have  felt  that 
I  was  rendering  an  essential  service  toward  'the  improvement  and  bet- 
ter management  of  the  public  schools,'  by  aiding  in  the  employment 
of  such  teachers.  If  but  one  good  teacher  could  be  permanently  em- 
ployed in  each  town,  the  direct  and  indirect  influence  of  his  teaching 
and  example  would  be  soon  felt  in  every  school;  and  his  influence 
would  be  still  more  powerful  and  extensive  if  arrangements  could  be 
made  so  as  to  facilitate  the  visitation  of  his  school  by  other  teachers, 
or  so  as  to  allow  of  his  making  a  circuit  through  the  districts  and 
towns  in  his  vicinity,  and  give  familiar  and  practical  lectures  and 
illustrations  of  his  own  methods  of  instruction.  It  is  necessary  to  the 
rapid  progress  of  education  that  parents,  committees  and  teachers, 
should  see  and  know  what  a  good  school  is,  and  feel  that  'as  is  the 
teacher  so  is  the  school.' " 

TEACHERS'  INSTITUTE,  AND  ASSOCIATIONS. 

"By  Teachers'  Associations  as  now  generally  used,  is  understood  the 
permanent  organization  of  teachers  among  themselves;  and  by  Teach- 
ers' Institutes,  a  temporary  meeting,  under  the  appointment  of  them- 


262  EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS    IN    RHODE    ISLAND. 

selves,  or  the  school  officer  of  the  state,  for  professional  improvement. 
Teachers  in  every  town  have  been  urged  to  hold  occasional  meetings, 
or  even  a  single  meeting,  for  the  purpose  of  listening  to  practical  lec- 
tures and  discussions,  or  what  would  in  most  cases  be  better,  of  hold- 
ing familiar  conversation  together  on  topics  connected  with  the  ar- 
rangement of  schools,  or  methods  of  instruction  now  practised,  or 
recommended  in  the  various  periodicals  or  books  which  they  have  con- 
sulted, and  on  the  condition  of  their  own  schools.  But  something 
more  permanent  and  valuable  than  these  occasional  meetings,  has 
been  aimed  at  by  an  organization  of  the  teachers  of  the  state,  or  at 
least  of  a  single  county,  into  a  Teachers'  Institute,  with  a  systematic 
plan  of  operations  from  year  to  year,  which  shall  afford  to  young  and 
inexperienced  teachers  an  opportunity  to  review  the  studies  they  are 
to  teach,  and  to  witness,  and  to  some  extent  practice,  the  best  meth- 
ods of  arranging  and  conducting  the  classes  of  a  school,  as  well  as  of 
obtaining  the  matured  views  of  the  best  teachers  and  educators  on  all 
the  great  topics  of  education,  as  brought  out  in  public  lectures,  dis- 
cussions and  conversation.  The  attainments  of  solitary  reading  will 
thus  be  quickened  by  the  action  of  living  mind.  The  acquisition  of 
one  will  be  tested,  by  the  experience  and  strictures  of  others.  New 
advances  in  any  direction  by  one  teacher,  will  become  known,  and 
made  the  common  property  of  the  profession.  Old  and  defective  meth- 
ods will  be  held  up,  exposed  and  corrected,  while  valuable  hints  will  be 
followed  out  and  proved.  The  tendency  to  a  dogmatical  tone  and  spirit, 
to  one-sided  and  narrow  views,  to  a  monotony  of  character,  which 
every  good  teacher  fears,  and  to  which  most  professional  teachers  are 
exposed,  will  be  withstood  and  obviated.  The  sympathies  of  a  common 
pursuit,  the  interchange  of  ideas,  the  discussion  of  topics  which  con- 
cern their  common  advancement,  the  necessity  of  extending  their  read- 
ing and  inquiries,  and  of  cultivating  the  power  and  habit  of  written 
and  oral  expression,  all  these  things  will  attach  teachers  to  each  other, 
elevate  their  own  character  and  attainments,  and  the  social  and  pecu- 
niary estimate  of  the  profession." 

ITINERATING    NORMAL    SCHOOL    AGENCY. 

"With  the  co-operation  of  the  Washington  County  Association,  the 
services  of  a  well-qualified  teacher  were  secured  to  visit  every  town 
in  that  county,  for  the  purpose,  among  other  objects,  of  acting  directly 
on  the  schools  as  they  were  by  plain,  practical  exposures  of  defective 
methods,  which  impair  the  usefulness  of  the  schools,  and  illustrations 
of  other  methods  which  would  make  the  schools  immediately  and 
permanently  better." 

NORMAL    SCHOOL. 

"Although  much  can  be  done  toward  improving  the  existing  quali- 
fications of  teachers,  and  elevating  their  social  and  pecuniary  posi- 
tion, by  converting  one  or  more  district  schools  in  each  town  and 
county,  into  a  model  school,  to  which  the  young  and  inexperienced 
teacher  may  resort  for  demonstrations  of  the  best  methods;  or  by 
sending  good  teachers  on  missions  of  education  throughout  the  schools 
of  a  county;  or  by  associations  of  teachers  for  mutual  improvement, — 
still  these  agencies  can  not  so  rapidly  supply,  in  any  system  of  public 
education,  the  place  of  one  thoroughly-organized  Normal  School,  or  an 
institution  for  the  special  training  of  teachers,  modified  to  suit  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  the  state,  and  the  present  condition  of  the 
schools.  With  this  conviction  resting  on  my  own  mind,  I  have  aimed 
every  where  so  to  set  forth  the  nature,  necessity,  and  probable  re- 
sults of  such  an  institution,  as  to  prepare  the  public  mind  for  some 
legislative  action  toward  the  establishment  of  one  such  school,  and  in 


EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS    IN    RHODE   ISLAND.  263 

the  absence  of  that,  to  make  it  an  object  of  associated  effort  and  lib- 
erality. I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  any  movement  on  the  part 
of  the  state,  would  be  met  by  the  prompt  co-operation  of  not  a  few 
liberal-minded  and  liberal-handed  friends  of  education,  and  the  great 
enterprise  of  preparing  Rhode  Island  teachers  for  Rhode  Island 
schools,  might  soon  be  in  successful  operation." 

ADDRESSES   AND   PUBLICATIONS   ON   THE   SUBJECT   OF  EDUCATION. 

The  following  extract  from  Remarks  of  the  Commissioner 
before  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of  Instruction,  will  exhibit 
his  mode  of  preparing  the  way  for  a  broad,  thorough  and 
liberal  system  of  public  instruction,  by  interesting  all  who 
could  be  reached  by  the  living  voice  or  the  printed  page,  in 
the  nature  and  means  of  education,  the  condition  and  wants 
of  the  schools,  and  the  best  modes  of  introducing  desirable 
improvements. 

"To  this  end  public  meetings  have  been  held,  not  only  in  every  town, 
but  in  every  village  and  neighborhood,  more  numerous  and  more  sys- 
tematic in  their  plan  of  operations  than  was  ever  attempted  in  any 
other  community,  or  than  could  have  been  carried  out  in  the  same  time 
in  any  state  of  greater  territory,  and  with  a  population  less  concen- 
trated in  villages  than  this.  More  than  eleven  hundred  meetings  have 
been  held  expressly  to  discuss  topics  connected  with  the  public  schools, 
at  which  more  than  fifteen  hundred  addresses  have  been  delivered. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  meetings  have  continued  through  the 
day  and  evening;  upward  of  one  hundred,  through  two  evenings  and 
a  day;  fifty,  through  two  days  and  three  evenings;  and  twelve,  includ- 
ing the  Teachers'  institutes,  through  an  entire  week.  In  addition  to 
this  class  of  meetings  and  addresses,  upward  of  two  hundred  meetings 
of  teachers  and  parents  have  been  held  for  lectures  and  discussions 
on  improved  methods  of  teaching  the  studies  ordinarily  pursued  in 
public  schools,  and  for  exhibitions  or  public  examinations  of  schools, 
or  of  a  class  of  pupils  in  certain  studies,  such  as  arithmetic,  reading, 
&c.  These  meetings  have  proved  highly  useful.  Besides  these  various 
meetings,  experienced  teachers  have  been  employed  to  visit  particular 
towns  and  sections  of  the  state,  and  converse  freely  with  parents  by 
the  way-side  and  the  fire-side,  on  the  condition  and  improvement  of 
the  district  school.  By  these  various  agencies  it  is  believed  that  a 
public  meeting  has  been  held  within  three  miles  of  every  home  in 
Rhode  Island,  except  in  sections  of  a  few  towns  where  an  audience  of 
a  dozen  people  could  not  be  collected  in  a  circuit  of  three  or  four 
miles. 

To  the  interest  awakened  by  these  addresses  and  by  the  sympathy 
of  numbers  swayed  by  the  same  voice,  and  by  the  same  ideas,  must 
be  added  the  more  permanent  and  thoughtful  interest  cultivated  by 
the  reading  of  books,  pamphlets,  and  tracts  on  the  same  topics  at 
home.  More  than  sixteen  thousand  pamphlets  and  tracts,  each  con- 
taining at  least  sixteen  pages  of  educational  matter,  have  been  dis- 
tributed gratuitously  through  the  state;  and  in  one  year,  not  an  al- 
manac was  sold  in  Rhode  Island  without  at  least  sixteen  pages  of  edu- 
cational reading  attached.  This  statement  does  not  include  the  official 
school  documents  published  by  the  state,  nor  the  Journal  of  the  Insti- 
tute, nor  upward  of  twelve  hundred  bound  volumes  on  schools  and 
school  systems,  and  the  theory  and  practice  of  teaching,  which  have 
been  purchased  by  teachers,  or  which  have  been  added  to  public  or 
private  libraries  within  the  last  four  years.  In  addition  to  the  printed 
information  thus  disseminated,  the  columns  of  the  different  newspapers 


264  EDUCATION    OF    TEACHERS    IN    RHODE   ISLAND. 

published  in  the  state  have  always  been  open  to  original  and  selected 
articles  on  education,  and  to  notices  of  school  meetings." 

The  author  of  the  Remarks  above  quoted  was  obliged, 
from  impaired  health,  to  resign  his  office  of  Commissioner 
of  Public  Schools,  before  he  could  organize  these  various 
agencies  into  a  complete  and  permanent  system  for  the  pro- 
fessional training  and  improvement  of  the  teachers  of 
Rhode  Island.  His  plan  contemplated  a  thoroughly-organ- 
ized and  equipped  Normal  School,  and  ultimately  two  Nor- 
mal Schools — one  to  be  located  in  the  city  of  Providence, 
having  a  connection,  under  the  auspices  of  the  school  com- 
mittee, with  a  Public  Grammar,  Intermediate  and  Primary 
School,  or  Schools  of  Observation  and  Practice,  and  also 
with  Brown  University,  under  a  distinct  professorship,  and 
with  access  to  libraries,  apparatus,  and  courses  of  lectures, 
so  far  as  the  same  could  be  made  available — and  the  other 
in  the  country.  The  Normal  School  at  Providence  was  to  re- 
ceive two  classes  of  pupils — young  men,  whose  previous 
studies  and  talent  fitted  them  for  the  charge  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced classes  in  public  schools  in  the  cities  and  villages, 
and  the  other  for  female  teachers.  The  plan  of  a  Normal 
School  in  the  country,  was  modeled  in  some  of  its  features 
after  the  institution  of  Verhli,  at  Kruitzlingen,  in  Switzer- 
land, of  which  an  account  was  published  in  the  Journal  of 
the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of  Instruction,  in  1846,  and  of 
the  Training  School  at  Battersea,  in  England.  In  this  school 
the  teachers  were  to  support  themselves  in  whole,  or  in  part, 
or  at  least  the  expense  of  board  was  to  be  reduced,  after  the 
plan  of  the  Seminary  at  Mount  Holyoke,  in  Massachusetts. 
In  both  institutions,  the  course  of  instruction  was  to  em- 
brace the  principles  of  science  as  applied  to  the  leading  in- 
dustrial pursuits  of  the  people  of  the  state;  and  in  this  de- 
partment of  the  plan,  the  co-operation  of  the  "Rhode  Island 
Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Domestic  Industry,"  was 
anticipated.  No  state  in  the  Union  possesses  such  facilities. 
As  was  remarked  by  the  Commissioner,  in  taking  final  leave 
of  the  Legislature,  and  the  Rhode  Island  Institute  of  In- 
struction, in  1848 : 

"Her  territory  is  small,  and  every  advance  in  one  town  or  district, 
can  easily  be  known,  seen  and  felt  in  every  other.  Her  wealth  is  abun- 
dant,— more  abundant,  and  more  equally  distributed,  than  in  any  other 
state.  Her  population  is  concentrated  in  villages,  which  will  admit 
of  the  establishment  of  public  schools  of  the  highest  grade.  The  oc- 
cupations of  the  people  are  diverse,  and  this  is  at  once  an  element  of 
power  and  safety.  Commerce  will  give  expansion;  manufactures  and 
the  mechanical  arts  will  give  activity,  power,  invention  and  skill; 
and  agriculture,  the  prudence  and  conservatism  which  should  belong  to 
the  intellectual  character  and  habits  of  a  people.  Rhode  Island  has 
a  large  city,  to  which  the  entire  population  of  the  state  is  brought  by 
business  or  pleasure  every  year,  and  which  should  impart  a  higher 


EDUCATION   OF   TEACHERS   IN   BHODE   ISLAND.  265 

tone  of  manners,  intelligence  and  business,  than  can  exist  in  a  state 
without  a  capital;  and  fortunately,  Providence  has  set  a  noble  example 
to  the  rest  of  the  state  in  her  educational  institutions, — in  the  pro- 
vision of  her  citizens  for  schools,  libraries,  and  institutions  for  religion 
and  benevolence." 

PROFESSORSHIP   IN   DIDACTICS   IN   BROWN   UNIVERSITY. 

In  the  reorganization  of  the  course  of  instruction  in 
Brown  University  as  presented  in  the  Report  of  President 
Wayland,  on  the  19th  of  July,  1850,  provision  is  made  for  a 
course  in  "Didactics,  or  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Teach- 
ing." The  following  explanation  is  given  in  the  Report. 

"The  course  in  Didactics  is  designed  at  present  especially  for  the 
benefit  of  teachers  of  common  schools.  There  will  be  held  two  terms 
a  year  in  this  department,  of  at  least  two  months  each.  It  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  professor  of  Didactics  to  review  with  the  class  the 
studies  taught  in  common  schools,  and  then  to  explain  the  manner 
of  communicating  knowledge  to  others.  The  other  professors  in  the 
University  will  be  expected  to  deliver  to  this  class  such  lectures  in 
their  several  departments  as  may  be  desired  by  the  Executive  Board." 

The  course  as  thus  explained,  if  entrusted  to  a  competent 
professor,  will  accomplish  much  good  to  a  limited  number 
of  teachers,  who  shall  bring  a  suitable  preparatory  knowl- 
edge, and  be  able  to  meet  the  expenses  of  a  residence  in 
Providence.  But  unless  greatly  enlarged,  and  accompanied 
with  opportunities  of  observation  and  practice  in  the  public 
schools  of  the  city,  it  will  fall  far  short  of  meeting  the  wants 
of  the  female  teachers  of  the  state,  and  much  the  larger  por- 
tion of  the  male  teachers.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  plan  will 
be  so  far  extended,  as  to  embrace  a  Normal  School  under  the 
auspices  of  the  School  Committee  of  Providence,  and  in  con- 
nection with  a  Grammar,  Intermediate  and  Primary  School, 
as  Schools  of  Practice,  for  female  teachers,  like  that  in  suc- 
cessful operation  in  Philadelphia. 


MICHIGAN. 


The  importance  of  making  early  and  efficient  provision 
for  a  sufficient  number  of  well-qualified  teachers,  was  point- 
ed out  by  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  in  his 
preliminary  report  to  the  Legislature,  on  the  organization 
of  the  system,  in  1837.  The  subject  was  repeatedly  present- 
ed to  the  public  in  subsequent  recommendations  from  the 
same  officer,  until  1849,  when  the  Legislature  passed  an  act 
to  establish  a  State  Normal  School,  "the  exclusive  purposes 
of  which  shall  be  the  instruction  of  persons,  both  male  and 
female,  in  the  art  of  teaching,  and  in  all  the  various  branch- 
es that  pertain  to  a  good  common  school  education ;  also  to 
give  instruction  in  the  mechanic  arts  and  in  the  arts  of  hus- 
bandry and  agricultural  chemistry,  in  the  fundamental  laws 
of  the  United  States,  and  in  what  regards  the  rights  and 
duties  of  citizens." 

For  the  purpose  of  providing  the  necessary  expenses  of 
building,  books  and  apparatus,  "ten  sections  of  salt-spring 
lands,"  were  appropriated,  as  the  "Normal  School  Fund;" 
and  to  meet  the  salaries  of  the  Principal  and  Assistants,  the 
Board  of  Education,  to  whom  the  management  of  the  School 
is  intrusted,  are  authorized  -"to  locate  fifteen  sections  of 
salt-spring  lands,"  as  the  "Normal  School  Endowment 
Fund,"  the  interest  of  which  only  can  be  applied  to  the 
above  purposes. 

The  school  has  been  located  in  Ypsilanti,  the  citizens  of 
that  beautiful  village  having  tendered  for  the  use  of  the 
School  an  eligible  lot  of  ground,  a  subscription  of  $13,500 
toward  a  suitable  building,  and  the  payment  of  the  salary 
of  the  teacher  of  the  Model  School,  to  be  composed  of  the 
children  of  the  village.  The  plan  of  the  building  has  been  de- 
cided on,  and  is  to  be  ready  for  the  occupation  of  the  School, 
in  the  course  of  1850. 


NORMAL  SCHOOLS 

IN 

BRITISH  PROVINCES. 


NEW  BBUNSWICK. 

By  an  Act  of  the  Provincial  Legislature  of  New  Bruns- 
wick, in  1848,  two  Training  Schools  were  established,  one  at 
Fredericton,  and  the  other  at  St.  Johns,  as  an  experiment, 
for  a  period  of  two  years.  In  1850,  the  act  was  continued 
in  force  two  years  longer,  to  give  time  to  prepare  a  more 
comprehensive  measure  for  the  education  of  teachers.  In 
1850,  the  school  at  Fredericton  was  united  with  that  at  St. 
Johns,  which  is  in  successful  operation  under  the  charge  of 
Mr.  E.  H.  Duval. 

TJPPEB    CANADA. 

The  Provincial  Normal  School  for  Upper  Canada,  was 
established  at  Toronto,  in  1846,  and  since  its  first  organi- 
zation has  been  under  the  immediate  instruction  of  Profes- 
sor J.  B.  Robertson,  who  was  for  many  years  one  of  the 
chief  Inspectors  of  Schools,  in  connection  with  the  Board  of 
National  Education  for  Ireland.  In  1850,  the  Provincial 
Legislature  appropriated  the  sum  of  $60,000  for  procuring 
a  site,  and  erecting  buildings  for  the  "Provincial  Normal 
and  Model  School."  The  September  number  of  the  Journal 
of  Education,  published  at  Toronto,  under  the  editorial 
charge  of  Dr.  Ryerson,  and  sent  at  the  expense  of  the  prov- 
ince to  every  school  district,  contains  the  following  notice: 

"A  site  has  been  purchased,  consisting  of  nearly  eight  acres  of 
ground,  beautifully  situated  in  a  central  part  of  the  city  of  Toronto, 
composing  an  entire  square.  This  ground  will  afford  facilities  for  a 
bontanical  garden — the  proper  accompaniment  of  the  Normal  School 
lectures  in  vegetable  physiology;  also  for  agricultural  experiments  on 
a  limited  scale — an  appropriate  illustration  of  the  Normal  School 
course  of  instruction  in  agricultural  chemistry  and  science. 

The  Council  of  Public  Instruction  has  also  advertised  for  designs  and 
plans  for  the  Normal  and  Model  School  buildings,  including  rooms  for 
a  school  of  art  and  design, — offering  liberal  premiums,  so  as  to  insure 
the  contributions  of  the  highest  architectural  science  and  skill  in  the 
country." 

Not  one  of  the  United  States  has  made  more  progress  in 
the  last  ten  years  than  the  province  of  Upper  Canada,  in 
carrying  into  successful  operation  a  system  of  common 
schools,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Rev.  Egerton  Ryerson, 
D.D.,  chief  superintendent  of  the  department.  Dr.  Ryerson's 


268  NORMAL    SCHOOLS   IN   BRITISH   PROVINCES. 

"Report  on  the  Organization  of  a  System  of  Elementary  In- 
struction for  Upper  Canada,"  in  1846,  embodies  the  results 
of  nearly  two  years'  observation  on  the  practical  workings 
of  schools  and  school  systems  in  the  different  states  of  Eu- 
rope, and  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  literature  of  ed- 
ucation. 


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